benefactor and preceptor in the art of war. Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange, died on the 14th March of that year, aged sixty-three. The war ended in the peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Schomberg was admitted to the intimate friendship and confidence of Prince William the Second. This prince, his predecessor’s only son, was the husband of Princess Mary of England. Her brother Charles, Prince of Wales, came in 1648 or sooner, and made the Hague his headquarters, from which he watched the troubles of his native country. Here Schomberg was introduced to his acquaintance, and became a favourite. The youthful Charles (the year of whose birth was 1630) allowed the good man and gallant soldier to speak freely to him.
The rule of the second Prince William was a short and troubled one. Because peace was established, the States wished to disband the army. But he felt that powerful and unscrupulous neighbours would at once take advantage of such a defenceless situation. He had at last yielded to a project of disbanding one hundred and twenty companies, on condition that the disbanded officers should continue in receipt of full pay. The latter part of the compromise having been rejected by the province of Guelders and the city of Amsterdam, William again declared himself against any disbanding. He then began a tour to the principal cities. Accompanied by the principal colonels of the army, he personally pled and expostulated with the burghers. These conferences were suddenly interrupted by a deputation from Amsterdam, Haarlem, and other towns, whose errand was to request the Prince to postpone his visit to them. He interpreted this message as an affront, a feeling which was not removed by a prolonged correspondence, and the result was the imprisonment of six of the principal magistrates in the Castle of Lovestein. William followed up this step by besieging Amsterdam with a military force; this was on the 30th of July 1650. The citizens opened the sluices and flooded the country; and, three days after, the Prince and the city concluded a treaty of accommodation. He then released the incarcerated magistrates, on condition “that they should be for ever disqualified for any public employments or places.” He also sent an explanatory paper to the States, which was returned unopened, on the ground that no justification was required, as the difference had been adjusted. This beginning of tranquillity was all the Prince lived to see. Small-pox carried him off on the 6th of November following, in the twenty-fourth year of his age.
The death of Prince William the Second terminated Schomberg’s residence in Holland. The reason of his retirement has been preserved by Bishop Burnet — “Schomberg was the Prince of Orange’s particular favourite, but had so great a share in the last violent actions of his life, seizing the States, and in the attempt upon Amsterdam, that he left the service upon his death.”
All that can be said about the private life and affairs of Frederic de Schomberg is, that we cannot suppose that at this date he was a rich man. He was only a soldier of fortune. His paternal estates in the Palatinate had been confiscated. He had the armorial bearings of the Princes of Cleves, his ancestors (“quorum adhuc gestat insignia”). He was a Count of the Holy Empire, and had other titles of nobility; but these dignities furnished no revenues. He had also entered into the married state, his wife being by birth his first cousin Johanna Elizabetha de Schomberg, daughter of Henry Thierri, Count of Schomberg, residing in Wesel. She was the mother of his five sons.
He turned his steps towards France. The French army was open to him, he having served with it already. He was also ready to enter into the church membership with the Huguenots of France most heartily. His poverty was a visible martyrdom for the Protestant faith. And it was not to the Lutheran form of Protestantism that he was attached, but to the system which the Lutherans styled Calvinistic, and which its adherents called Evangelisch.
Both in the Palatinate and in Holland, the Catechism of Ursinus was used, often called the Belgic Catechism, and now, the Heidelberg Catechism. The whole life of Frederic Schomberg proves that he really believed the doctrines so beautifully expressed in that Catechism. Because it is little known, and as I have long thought that it might be the rallying point for a grand incorporation of Protestant Churches, I request my readers to picture young Schomberg repeating a few of its questions and answers, with a view to recommend it to their approval. How suitable to an exile is the beginning of the Catechism.
