The sea beggars, liberators of Holland from the yoke of Spain

Contents

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Part L The Sea Beggars as Freebooters.

I. Their Origin and First Appearance.. . . 29

Preface

THE revolt of the Netherlands against Spain in 1568, changed the political aspect of the greater part of the world.

It is because of this revolt, and the war of eighty years following, that the people of these United States are not a Spanish-speaking nation, but are, instead, an English-speaking one.

If Philip II. of Spain, with his Spanish advisers at Madrid, and his governor-general in the Netherlands, had — in their dealings with the Netherland people — practised moderation and had exercised wise statesmanship, the Dutch would not have revolted. Possibly for one century and a quarter longer they would have remained loyal to the Spanish Hapsburgs, and have aided — or at least not opposed — the aims of Spain.

One of those aims was the subjugation and colonization of the entire American hemisphere. At the outbreak of the eighty years' war for Dutch independence, Spanish rule was firmly established far into the territory at present embraced within the boundaries of these United States. And, at the time mentioned, there did not exist a single European Power strong enough to have interposed effectively between mighty Spain and her ambitious aims.

Long before the most advanced European nation of the period would have become powerful enough successfully to attempt territorial aggrandizement in any part of the territory at present occupied — on this continent — by the United States of North America, that territory would have been settled and firmly held by large numbers of Spanish-speaking colonists. These colonists — supported by the armies and navies of the powerful and wealthy mother-country — would have frustrated any attempted encroachment by the other nationalities.

It was owing only to the weakness of Spain, consequent upon the eighty years' war, that the English were permitted to gain and retain a foothold on this northern part of the Western hemisphere. Had the reigning family and the authorities of Spain exercised wise forethought in their dealings with the Netherland people, Spanish domination — assisted by Dutch cooperation under Spanish supremacy — would have rendered the whole of this territory Spanish many years before the English would have become strong enough to attempt the conquest and the independent settling of any part of the American continent. And — in the light of history — it is safe to assert that the French occupation of Canada, if partly successful at first, would have been of brief duration in the face of the united attacks of Spain and the Spanish-speaking colonists.

As it was, the Spaniards not only were obliged to forego the active cooperation of the Dutch, but were even forced, before long, to carry on a war of defense against them in Europe, as well as on the high seas and in the distant colonies. The Spanish losses during this war of eighty years' duration, were appalling; not only in men but even more so in treasure.

Several richly-laden Spanish fleets and innumerable single merchant vessels were captured by the Dutch, to the great injury of Spanish subjects and government. The output of the American gold-diggings and silver-mines, destined to defray the expense of the war against the Dutch, fell into their hands, enabling them to fight the Spaniards with the Spaniards' own weapons. Even as far east as the Philippine Islands,"* the Dutch privateers harassed Spanish commerce, and captured Spanish merchantmen.

Under these conditions it was impossible for much-afflicted Spain — now attacked also by other enemies — to extend any further her dominions in the New World. She now was able only to defend and keep what she had successfully colonized. Small Spanish garrisons, assisted by the colonists themselves, usually succeeded in preserving for Spain the larger part of the American territory, where strong Spanish-speaking settlements had grown up during, the century of colonization under undisputed Spanish supremacy. That those settlements were strong and able to defend successfully their Spanish allegiance against alien encroachment, is proved by the several futile attempts of the English — aided by the American colonists of the various nationalities then acknowledging English sway — to subdue parts of Spanish America.

But Spain — since the beginning of the eighty years' war — was powerless to oppose the influx of French, English, Dutch, and Swedes into the North American territories not yet occupied by continuous and strong Spanish-speaking colonies. These four nationalities now were able to appropriate to themselves large slices along the North Atlantic coast-line of the American continent, peopling them with settlers of their own nationality, under their own language, laws, and flag.

Had it not been for the partial disintegration of the Spanish empire — owing to this eighty years' war, and to the

tremendous losses engendered by it — Spain would, without great trouble, have kept out every other nation. Spanish domination, then, would have become an accomplished fact. The Spanish language — as a result of settlement under Spanish authority — would have been the language of this part of the Western hemisphere, as well as of Mexico, South and Central America.

Even the accident of Brazil being a Portuguese, instead of a Spanish-speaking, country, is directly traceable to Spain's tremendous losses and to the condition of bankruptcy brought about by the eighty years' war.

And at present history is repeating itself. The Boers of the South African plains, beneath the Southern Cross, are doing to the greatest maritime power of the twentieth century what the Sea Beggars of the Netherlands had been doing to the greatest land-power of the sixteenth century.

If England should continue in this unholy South African contest for gold and dominion, she will bankrupt herself. The small forces of the Boers of South Africa may not be able — and probably will not attempt — to defeat in pitched battles the tremendous English forces that have invaded and laid waste their countries. But the long duration of the South African struggle will ruin England, as Spain was ruined through the eighty years' war. For many years longer the Boers will hold out as their prototypes of the Netherlands before them held out.

England's security and her status as a World Power — all other conditions being favorable — depend upon the English navy. And with the ever-increasing expenditures — growing out of this South-African war — it will, before long, become impossible for the English to add to their fleet or even to repair what is going to decay. It will be the case of Spain over again. England's rivals, if they be wise

Preface. ii

and do not permit themselves to be embroiled with one another, will be able to build up their navies, and found their maritime greatness, upon the ruins of England's solvency.

After the eight}'-y ears' war had cost Spain more than fifty millions of guilders, Spanish energ}- in its prosecution began to slacken. Since its first beginning in 1568, Spain was really three times only in a condition to put forth any great effort to bring about a favorable ending of the contest.

The first supreme effort, in 1588, ended in the disasters to the Spanish Armada by the storms of the season ; the second great attempt, in 1600, was frustrated by Prince Maurice's brilliant and decisive victor}- of Nieuwpoort, and the third and last attempt, in 1639, ™^^ ^'^^^ ^^ ignominious defeat at the hands of the great Tromp, near the Downs in the English Channel.

Ever since the Sea Beggars took Briel, the eighty-years* war was, in general, on the part of the Spaniards, nothing but one prolonged effort to keep what they yet possessed ; only seldom to regain what they had lost. The eighty years' war, hence, soon became to Spain largely a defensive war.

And the same is true, at present, of the operations by the English in South Africa. After the Boers had permitted Earl Roberts (of Pretoria) to lead his troops into those delusive Boer traps — Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, and Pretoria — the war, on the part of the English, has continually been a war of defense. They have not even been able to hold all they thought they had securely annexed. Concentration of garrisons has become the order of the day. The Boers have everywhere entered upon the offensive.

The only effectual way to fight the Dutch during the eighty years' war was by employing ships. Those ships — when united into fleets — either fell into the hands of the Dutch or were destroyed, or else were sunk in battle, or succumbed to the fury of the elements. Spain's greatest pecuniary losses originated through the equipment and destruction of armadas, aided by the distance of the scene of operations, several hundred miles away, from the home-country.

The only effective way of fighting the noble Africander patriots is by using horses. And in this instance again we see a virtual repetition of history. At least twenty-five thousand " salted " horses would be needed simultaneously to carry on English operations against the brave defenders of South Africa's liberty.

And in view of the fact that — on an average — an imported horse lasts six weeks only, a quarter of a million of horses per annum, at an annual cost of a hundred million dollars, would be needed to carry on an offensive warfare by South Africa's devastators : the English civilizers.

The cost of this iniquitous war, if continued, will bankrupt England. Even if the struggle should last only ten years, the English national debt will have been increased by little less than three thousand million dollars, besides the piling up of an unbearable burden of direct and indirect taxes.

At present the credit of the English nation is yet good enough to enable them to borrow at the lowest rates of current interest. But this also will cease. With the piling-up of the English national debt, and the certain difficulty of meeting England's monetary obligations, the capitalists — at present still eager to lend — will then become suspicious, and the English people will be able to borrow money only at greatly-advanced rates of interest.

England's industrial and commercial prosperity is declin_ ing fast. An6i cot Salisbury's panacea even — the study of foreign languages — will arrest this downward course. It is only natural. The United States, Russia, Germany — not to mention other growing countries, all richer than England in natural resources, and in more favorable geographical positions — are to-day straining every nerve to relegate the English to the position where they belong. And the process has but just begun. The decrease of the people's earnings, the large increase of taxation, the continuous drains upon the English, through the interest of their huge national debt — coupled with a decreasing earning-capacity as a nation — will — if this South African war be much prolonged — reduce England to the condition of Spain and Turkey, and Salisbury will soon be able to add one more name to his list of dying nations.

Introduction

Accident of birth had made a foreign potentate lord of all the Netherlands. Philip II., King of Spain, " The Spanish Tiberius," was alien by birth, as well as by sentiment, to his Netherland subjects. He deemed himself able to impose upon them his royal prerogative, as he and his father before him had succeeded in doing in the dominions of Spain. Soon after Philip's accession to the throne he endeavored, through his representatives at Brussels, to rule his Netherland provinces in the same manner as he was ruling his other inheritances, — by the simple declaration of his royal pleasure.

But the Netherlands, though ruled from Madrid, were neither a dependency of Spain nor an appanage of the Spanish Crown. They were independent States, some of which acknowledged Philip as Duke, others as Count, others as Margrave, others as Lord, but all with definitely recognized privileges and charters, which he had solemnly sworn to respect upon his accession to the throne.

In August, 1559, Philip was about to depart for his native Spain ; he then promised the States-General of the Netherland provinces to remove from their country, within four months, the Spanish troops that had fought under his father in the Franco-Spanish wars. But not until 1561, when the Spanish King absolutely needed them in the Mediterranean* did he relieve the Netherlands of the hated presence of the alien soldiery.

i6 Introduction.

He was equally remiss in regard to his promise not to invest foreigners with Netherland offices, whether civil, ecclesiastical or military. This promise also had been broken ; the Cardinal Granvelle had not only been appointed a member of the Council of State, — the highest advisory body in the land, — but he was specially favored and exclusively consulted by the regent, Margaret of Parma. This displeased the nobles to such an extent that, in March, 1563, they leagued themselves against him, while some of the greatest nobles of the land, such as William the Silent, the Counts of Egmont and Hoorn, and others, resigned their seats in the Council of State on account of the insolent Granvelle's position therein. The nobles did not leave a stone unturned to bring about his fall ; not succeeding, they did all that lay in their power to make Granvelle appear ridiculous in the eyes of the people. Even the king had been appealed to about the matter, but without avail.

At last the regent herself was forced to pray the king for Granvelle's recall ; but even she was refused. So great was the opposition of all classes of the people that, notwithstanding the royal favor and the support of the regent, Granvelle requested his discharge. Accordingly, in April, 1564, he left the country, where, owing to his insensate pride and contempt for the natives, he had incurred the universal hatred of all classes of the people.

This Granvelle incident not only did much to weaken the popular respect for the government, but detached many a noble from the cause of Spain, and also laid the foundation of the opposition that culminated in the eighty years' war for liberty.

But with Granvelle's departure the reactionary measures of the government did not cease. In vain petitions and protests rained. When, at last, every remonstrance had been ignored by the king at Madrid, as well as by his regent in the Netherlands, twenty nobles, on November 6th, 1565, assembled at Spa and agreed upon a compact, called the " Compromis," or " Covenant of the Nobles." This compact was effected for the purpose of resisting every attempt against the ancient liberties of their country, and the imposition of the royal will in constitutional States.

The alliance soon numbered four hundred members, and before a year had passed it possessed a membership of sixteen hundred, — nobles as well as prominent burghers. Much was expected from this covenant ; but the only important act, before dissolution, was the presentation to the regent Margaret of Parma of a remonstrance against the arbitrary measures of the government, and the accidental furnishing of a rallying and battle-cry to the patriot forces.

On April 5th, 1566, three hundred splendidly attired but unarmed nobles went in procession to the Court of Brabant at Brussels, where the "Regent resided. Here the head of the covenant, Count Hendrik Van Brederode, presented to Margaret a petition in which the popular grievances had been set forth, at the same time praying for redress. The regent, upon seeing so imposing a body of nobles united against the measures of the government, appeared to be afraid, but the Count of Barlaymont, one of her courtiers, endeavored to allay her fears by whispering in her ear: " Do not be afraid, madam ; it is only a pack of beggars." This whisper was understood by Brederode.

The following evening a banquet of the nobles was given at the ancient Court of Gaasbeeck, then the palace of Floris Van Palland, Count of Culemborgh. Brederode told them of the nickname applied to them the day before. He advised his companions of the banquet-hall to adopt the opprobrious appellation as a distinct party-name. His suggestion i8 Introduction.

was adopted, and the banquet-hall immediately reverberated with enthusiastic cries of " Long live the Beggars ! "

From that time it became the rallying call and the battle-cry of the opponents of Spanish domination and absolutism in the Netherlands. " Vivent les Gueux, Leve de Geuzen, Long live the Beggars ! " soon resounded from one end of the land to the other, from the dykes of Friesland and Groningen to the hills and forests of Hainault and Flanders ; from the eastern shores of the North Sea to the distant coasts of Biscay, and far into the Atlantic Ocean. Nor did it die entirely away till after eighty years of fearful struggle and carnage the Dutch people had established for themselves a position among the nations, and the Dutch Republic took rank as a World Power.

While Margaret of Parma was yet Regent of the Netherlands, the opposition against Spanish absolutism had taken shape in the refusal of Valenciennes to admit a royal garrison. And for this offense against the king's government the city, in the month of December, 1566, was invested by Noircarmes. On March 24th, 1567, the unfortunate town was obliged to yield, and the cruel supporter of the divine right of kings, in direct violation of the conditions of surrender, ordered the larger part of the inhabitants to be executed. This perfidy was only the prelude to what was to follow under the administration of the Duke of Alba.

Hendrik Van Brederode, a lineal descendant of the first Count of Holland, who possessed a more divine right to rule the country than did the Spanish King, now began to fortify his castles at Ameide and Vianen. For this purpose William the Silent sent him three pieces of artillery, and here the partisans of liberty began to congregate and to arm. His example was speedily followed by many other nobles. To be prepared for coming events, Brederode secretly enlisted a small army of three thousand men, the partisans of freedom and progress in the country sending him provisions and ammunitions.

The regent now ordered Brederode to surrender unconditionally to the regal authority. As answer to the summons, he openly took up arms; and, in February, 1567, he threw troops into 's Hertogenbosch (Bois le Due). His troops, however, were forced to evacuate the city during the following month of April. He next made an attempt against Utrecht, but it miscarried.

Lack of means now forced him to disband his army, portions of which continued for a long time to infest the open country of the provinces of Utrecht, Holland, and Gelderland. Brederode himself went to Amsterdam, where the friends of freedom had revolted. For a few weeks he succeeded in rendering their cause victorious within the walls of the principal city of Northern Netherland. But it lasted only a little while. The principal partisans of liberty at Amsterdam, discouraged by the terrible defeat of Jan Van Marnix at Oosterweel, and, fearful of a fate similar to that of Valenciennes, requested permission of the authorities to sell their possessions and quit the country. This permission was granted on April 26th, 1567, and now began a general flight. Thousands quitted the country ; among them, on April 27th, Count Hendrik Van Brederode. On February 15th, 1568, this brilliant and ardent patriot died at the castle of Harmhof, in Germany, a poor exile from the country that he had so valiantly endeavored to set free. The time had not yet come.

At the same time that Brederode surprised 's Hertogenbosch, an attempt also was made to gain a foothold for the partisans of liberty in the city of Middelburg, situated on the Island of Walcheren, in the province of Zeeland. Pieter

20 Introduction. i

Haeck, ex-bailiff of Middelburg, had equipped three vessels in the neighborhood of Antwerp. Jan Dingmans, a navigator of Tholen, had been entrusted with the command of the ships, while the troops on board were officered by Jan Van Marnix, Lord of Tholouse, Jan Van Blois Van Treslong, and Wessel Van Boetselaar. Many influential residents of Walcheren knew of it, and favored the attempt.

In the second half of February, 1567, the expedition descended the river Scheldt, and appeared before Rammekens, a fortress on the Island of Walcheren. But the Spanish commander had been informed of the project, and was alert. Nothing could be hopefully undertaken against this stronghold ; and the brave little squadron now proceeded to Arnemuiden, at that time the outer harbor of Middelburg. Here also they were unable to force an entrance ; they were obliged to ascend the Scheldt, and return to their startingpoint. Van Marnix disembarked his troops at Oosterweel, at some distance from Antwerp, while Haeck and Dingmans probably went to sea with the ships, and may have been the forerunners of the Sea Beggars.

While encamped at Oosterweel, Van Marnix's forces, greatly augmented by continual additions of discontented people, lived exclusively upon the surrounding country. But as soon as the regent had been apprised of Van Marnix's whereabouts, she despatched the Lord of Beauvais, an ardent royalist, with eleven hundred regulars, against the undisciplined band of insurgents. Hardly any watch was kept in the scattered encampments of the revolutionists, and on March 13th, 1567, Beauvais easily surprised and totally defeated them. Van Marnix and Van Boetzelaer were killed in the onslaught. Blois Van Treslong was captured, and on June ist, 1568, expiated his crime of patriotism on the scaffold at Brussels. Fifteen hundred of the insurgents lost their lives during the battle. Of the three hundred survivors, the major part were captured and executed. Only a few were fortunate enough to escape and to join the ranks of the Savage, or Forest, Beggars, who, at that time, roamed / throughout the forests and marshes of Southern Netherland. '

These failures, and the expatriation of thousands of patriots, struck terror into the hearts of the people, and every open opposition to governmental arbitrariness ceased. For the time, royal despotism held supreme sway in the country, its representatives trampling underfoot the liberties of an entire nation.

These successes, and the report that a Spanish army, under the Duke of Alba, was ready to depart for the Netherlands, not only ruptured what had been left of the confederation of the nobles, but also induced Prince William the Silent, on April 22 nd, 1567, to take refuge in his German dominions, and to abandon for a while the project of delivering the Netherland people from the yoke of Spain.

His example was followed by many thousands of others : nobles, prominent burghers, skilled artisans. Large numbers of people that possessed neither the means to pay for their passage nor boasted wealthy friends to assist them out of the country, congregated in the woods and among the mountains of the Southern country, and under the appellation of Wilde Geuzen, or Savage Beggars, wreaked terrible vengeance upon some of the authors of their misfortune. The number of fugitives was so large that there were not enough ships at Amsterdam to convey them to the hospitable port of Emden, in the county of East Friesland. Many cloth-weavers, especially from the southern provinces, sought refuge in England.

On August 22nd, 1567, Alba entered the capital of Brussels, at the head of more than twenty thousand Spanish troops.

The incipient rebellion had been crushed ; the heads of the revolt had submitted or sought refuge in foreign lands. An entire nation lay prostrate at the feet of the representative of regal power. And now the punishments began. For this purpose the new governor-general instituted the Council of Troubles. Owing to its cruel and arbitrary sentences, it soon became known by the popular appellation, Council of Blood.

Not only those who had committed an overt act of disobedience against the royal will were punished, but even the signers of simple petitions against governmental measures were sentenced to banishment, imprisonment, confiscation of their property, and cruel death. And when, on February 26th, 1568, Philip II. had ratified the sentence of the Spanish Inquisition, which condemned to death every Netherlander, with a few unnamed exceptions, the bloodthirsty Alba had free play ; he was at liberty to act as he pleased with a people he detested.

Now a reign of terror began, its counterpart unparalleled in the annals of history. For six long and terrible years the executioner's sword and the hangman's rope were in action, disposing of the victims of Alba's tyranny and greed, the stake and the waters of the country supplying additional means for ridding the alien of troublesome or wealthy subjects. The entire country resembled a huge slaughterhouse of human beings. Now was the time that a popular Netherland poet sings of :

" And Netherland's soft soil throbbed 'neath the weight of woe."

To escape from the fury of the human Spanish bloodhounds, tens of thousands more left the country, and found refuge in the maritime cities of England and Northern Germany, in the towns along the Rhine, or joined the hordes of French, Danish, Scottish, and English freebooters that infested these northern seas and the coasts of the Atlantic. Commerce and industry had been prostrated ; cities formerlyprosperous now became the abode of poverty, and presented the picture of decay. The amount of taxes to be paid, however, kept on increasing. Although Alba despised the people, he entertained the most extravagant ideas of the country's riches.

In their extremity the eyes of the entire people now turned in the direction of Germany, where the princely exile, William the Silent, was doing all he could to succor the distracted Netherlanders. Assisted by his four brothers and several other kinsmen and friends, he equipped an army to expel the Spaniards from the country.

The first pitched battle of the eighty years' war occurred on April 25th, 1568, at Daelhem in Southern Netherland, resulting in the total rout of the patriot forces. Count Louis, a brother of William, had at first been more fortunate. On May 23rd, 1568, he conquered the Spaniards atHeiligerlee, in the province of Groningen, but on July 21st he was in turn defeated by Alba, near Jemgum, in East Friesland.

William himself, with an army of twenty-one thousand soldiers, on October 7th, 1568, suddenly crossed the river Maas near Maastricht, for the purpose of invading the country, and delivering it from Spanish oppression. He hoped for assistance, in money and men, from the Netherland people ; but the fear of the Spaniards prevented any open espousal of the cause. Not indeed until the prince had attained some important success would the people dare to declare themselves.

Alba, with an army of twenty-eight thousand veteran soldiers, strongly intrenched himself near the prince's camp, and, without offering or accepting battle, continually followed William's army wherever it went. Knowing that the prince would soon be forced to disband his hireling troops, because of lack of means to pay them, the wily Spaniard always succeeded in evading a decisive encounter. Twenty-nine times the prince changed his position to tempt Alba to give him battle. Twenty-nine times Alba followed him up, intrenching himself so strongly that each time William was unable to attack him successfully. But on December 4th, 1 568, the prince was obliged at last to evacuate the country. He marched upon Strassburg and there disbanded his army, sold his artillery to pay his soldiers in part, and returned to his German dominions.

Again the attempt to liberate the Netherlands had failed. The Spanish King was now the absolute master of a proud and liberty-loving people. It was at this time that Alba had his statue made from the cannon conquered at Jemgum, and which, in 157 1, he erected in the fortress of Antwerp. Had he but shown clemency, and practised liberality in his dealings with the people, the Netherlands might have been saved for many years more to the Spanish King, while, at the same time, the course of events in Europe would have been totally different. Fortunately for the world, however, the tyrant knew not how nor cared to gain the good-will of a nation whom he had at his mercy, yet whose spirit he had not conquered.

Persecution, condemnation, confiscation and cruel execution again became the order of the day. The Duke of Alba, through his oppression, estranged still more the hearts of the people from a king who had thus dared to permit his servants to trample upon their holiest convictions and most cherished rights. But however tyrannical, unjust, and cruel the duke might be, his rage had, as yet, been directed only against individuals, although at the close of his six years* rule he had had executed more than forty thousand victims.

Soon after his successes in the field, this governor-general began to enact measures that touched the whole nation, friends and foes alike of his government. In the year 1569, two years after his arrival in the country, — one year after his success against the prince and his brother Louis, — Alba resolved to render himself independent of the States-General, the representatives of the people.

It was customary with the sovereign of each province to request annually the States of every province to grant him the yearly taxes called beden. This custom, denoting the dependence of the sovereign upon the people, did not suit Alba. With his extravagant notions about royal prerogative and the divine right of kings, he deemed it beneath the king's dignity to run the risk of being refused, especially since the States, when granting the annual beden, almost invariably made the grants the excuse for demanding new privileges and exemptions.

Alba, therefore, and for the purpose of drawing more money from the country, demanded, for once, the hundredth penny, or one per cent, of every one's possessions, the twentieth penny of all real estate, and the tenth penny of all personal estate, whenever sold. Every man rose in arms against this system of taxation, especially against the twentieth and the tenth penny, which, combined, was denominated "the tenth penny." The hundredth penny was generally paid, but the tenth penny was as generally refused, because, it was said, it would ruin the country's commerce and industries.