a truce for twelve years was agreed upon. On all points the
Dutch demands were granted. The treaty was concluded with
The Twelve Years’ Truce.
the Provinces, “in the quality of free States over
whom the archdukes made no pretentions.” The uti
possidetis as regards territorial possession was recognized.
Neither the granting of freedom of worship
to Roman Catholics nor the word “Indies” was mentioned,
but in a secret treaty King Philip undertook to place no hindrance
in the way of Dutch trade, wherever carried on.
One of the immediate results of this triumph of his policy was
the increase of Oldenbarneveldt’s influence and authority in the
government of the Republic. But though Maurice
and his other opponents had reluctantly yielded to
the advocate’s skilful diplomacy and persuasive
Theological strife in Holland.
Arminius and Gomarus.
arguments, a soreness remained between the statesman
and the stadholder which was destined never to be healed. The
country was no sooner relieved from the pressure of external
war than it was torn by internal discords. After a brief interference
in the affairs of Germany, where the intricate question
of the Cleves-Jülich succession was already preparing the way
for the Thirty Years’ War, the United Provinces became immersed
in a hot and absorbing theological struggle with which were
mixed up important political issues. The province
of Holland was the arena in which it was fought out.
Two professors of theology at Leiden, Jacobus Arminius
(see Arminius) and Franciscus Gomarus, became the
leaders of two parties, who differed from one another upon
certain tenets of the abstruse doctrine of predestination.
Gomarus supported the orthodox Calvinist view; Arminius
assailed it. The Arminians appealed to the States of Holland
(1610) in a Remonstrance in which their theological position
was defined. They were henceforth known as “Remonstrants”;
Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants.
their opponents were styled “Contra-Remonstrants.”
The advocate and the States of
Holland took sides with the Remonstrants, Maurice
and the majority of the States-General (four provinces
out of seven) supported the Contra-Remonstrants. It became
a question of the extent of the rights of sovereign princes under
the Union. The States-General wished to summon a national
synod, the States of Holland refused their assent, and made
levies of local militia (waard-gelders) for the maintenance of order.
The States-General (9th of July 1618) took up the challenge,
and the prince of Orange, as captain-general, was placed at the
head of a commission to go in the first place to Utrecht, which
supported Oldenbarneveldt, and then to the various cities of
Waard-gelders.
Holland to insist on the disbanding of the waard-gelders.
On the side of Maurice, whom the army
obeyed, was the power of the sword. The opposition
collapsed; the recalcitrant provincial states were purged; and
the leaders of the party of state rights—the advocate himself,
Hugo de Groot (see Grotius), pensionary of Rotterdam, and
Hoogerbeets, pensionary of Leiden, were arrested and thrown
into prison. The whole proceedings were illegal, and the illegality
was consummated by the prisoners being brought before a
Oldenbarneveldt executed.
special tribunal of 24 judges, nearly all of whom were
personal enemies of the accused. The trial was
merely a preliminary to condemnation. The advocate
was sentenced to death, and executed (13th of May
1619) in the Binnenhof at the Hague. The sentences of Grotius
and Hoogerbeets were commuted to perpetual imprisonment.
Meanwhile the National Synod had been summoned and had met at Dort on the 13th of November 1618. One hundred members, many of them foreign divines, composed this great assembly, who after 154 sittings gave their seal to the doctrines of the Netherlands Confession and Synod of Dort. the Heidelberg Catechism. The Arminians were condemned, their preachers deprived, and the Remonstrant party placed under a ban (6th of May 1619).
In 1621 the Twelve Years’ Truce came to an end, and war
broke out once more with Spain. Maurice, after the death of
Oldenbarneveldt, was supreme in the land, but he missed
sorely the wise counsels of the old statesman whose tragic end
he had been so largely instrumental in bringing about. He
Renewal of the war.
Death of Maurice.
and Spinola found themselves once more at the head
of the armies in the field, but the health of the stadholder
was undermined, and his military genius was
under a cloud. Deeply mortified by his failure to relieve Breda,
which was blockaded by Spinola, Maurice fell seriously
ill, and died on the 23rd of April 1625. He was
succeeded in his dignities by his younger brother
Frederick Henry (see Frederick Henry, prince of Orange),
who was appointed stadholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht,
Overyssel and Gelderland, captain and adjutant-general of the
Union and head of the Council of State. Frederick Henry was as
a general scarcely inferior to Maurice, and a far more able statesman.
The moderation of his views and his conciliatory temper
did much to heal the wounds left by civil and religious strife,
and during his time the power and influence of the stadholderate
The period of Frederick Henry.
attained their highest point. Such was his popularity
and the confidence he inspired that in 1631 his great
offices of state were declared hereditary, in favour of
his five-year-old son, by the Acte de Survivance. He
did much to justify the trust placed in him, for the period of
Frederick Henry is the most brilliant in the history of the Dutch
Republic. During his time the East India Company, which had
founded the town of Batavia in Java as their administrative
capital, under a succession of able governor-generals
The East and West India Companies.
almost monopolized the trade of the entire
Orient, made many conquests and established a network
of factories and trade posts stretching from the Cape of
Good Hope to Japan (see Dutch East India Company). The
West India Company, erected in 1621, though framed on the
same model, aimed rather at waging war on the enemies’ commerce
than in developing their own. Their fleets for some years
brought vast booty into the company’s coffers. The Mexican
treasure ships fell into the hands of Piet Heyn, the boldest of
their admirals, in 1628; and they were able to send armies
across the ocean, conquer a large part of Brazil, and set up a
flourishing Dutch dominion in South America (see Dutch West
India Company). The operations of these two great chartered
companies occupy a place among memorable events of Frederick
Henry’s stadholderate; they are therefore mentioned here, but
for further details the special articles must be consulted.
When Frederick Henry stepped into his brother’s place, he found the United Provinces in a position of great danger and of critical importance. The Protestants of Germany were on the point of being crushed by the forces of the Austrian Habsburgs and the Catholic League. It lay Policy of Frederick Henry. with the Netherlands to create a diversion in the favour of their co-religionists by keeping the forces of the Spanish Habsburgs fully occupied. But to do so with their flank exposed to imperialist attack from the east, was a task involving grave risks and possible disaster. In these circumstances, Frederick Henry saw the necessity of securing French aid. It was secured by the skilful diplomacy of Francis van Aarssens (q.v.) but on hard conditions. Richelieu required the assistance of the Dutch fleet to enable him to overcome the resistance of the Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle. The far-sighted stadholder, despite popular opposition, by his powerful personal influence induced the States-General to grant the naval aid, and thus obtain the French alliance on which the safety of the republic depended.
The first great military success of Frederick Henry was in 1629. His capture of Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-duc), hitherto supposed to be impregnable, after a siege of five months was a triumph of engineering skill. Wesel also was taken by surprise this same year. In 1631 a Sieges of Hertogenbosch and Maestricht. large Spanish fleet carrying a picked force of 6000 soldiers, for the invasion of Zeeland, was completely destroyed by the Dutch in the Slaak and the troops made prisoners. The campaign of the following year was made memorable by the siege of Maestricht. This important frontier town lying on both sides of the river Meuse was taken by the prince of Orange in the teeth of two relieving armies, Spanish
