The World's Greatest Books - Volume 12 Part 22

_II.--Leicester and the Armada_

In the spring, Parma was actively prosecuting the war. He attacked Grave, which was valorously relieved by Martin Schenk and Sir John Norris; but soon after he took it, to Leicester's surprise and disgust.

The capture of Axed by Maurice of Na.s.sau and Sidney served as some balance. Presently Leicester laid siege to Zutphen; but the place was relieved, in spite of the memorable fight of Warnsfeld, where less than six hundred English attacked and drove off a force of six times their number, for reinforcements compelled their retreat. This was the famous battle of Zutphen, where Philip Sidney fell.

But Elizabeth persisted in keeping Leicester in a false position which laid him open to suspicion; while his own conduct kept him on ill terms with the Estates, and the queen's parsimony crippled his activities. In effect, there was soon a strong opposition to Leicester. He was at odds also with stout Sir John Norris, from which evil was to come.

Now, the discovery of Babington's plot made Leicester eager to go back to England, since he was set upon ending the life of Mary Stuart. At the close of November he took ship from Flushing. But while Norris was left in nominal command, his commission was not properly made out; and the important town of Deventer was left under the papist Sir William Stanley, with the adventurer Rowland York at Zutphen, because they were at feud with Norris. Then came disaster; for Stanley and York deliberately introduced Spanish troops by night, and handed over Deventer and Zutphen to the Spaniards, which was all the worse, as Leicester had ample warning that mischief was brewing. Every suspicion ever felt against Leicester, or as to the honesty of English policy, seemed to be confirmed, and there was a wave of angry feeling against all Englishmen. The treachery of Anjou seemed about to be repeated.

The Queen of Scots was on the very verge of her doom, and Elizabeth was entering on that most lamentable episode of her career, in which she displayed all her worst characteristics, when a deputation arrived from the Estates to plead for more effective help. The news of Deventer had not yet arrived, and the queen subjected them to a furious and contumelious harangue, and advised them to make peace with Philip. But on the top of this came a letter from the Estates, with some very plain speaking about Deventer.

Buckhurst, about the best possible amba.s.sador, was despatched to the Estates. He very soon found the evidence of the underhand dealings of certain of Leicester's agents to be irresistible. He appealed vehemently, as did Walsingham at home, for immediate aid, dwelling on the immense importance to England of saving the Netherlands. But Leicester had the queen's ear. Charges of every kind were flying on every hand. Buckhurst's efforts met with the usual reward. The Estates would have nothing to do with counsels of peace. At the moment they were appointing Maurice of Na.s.sau captain-general came the news that Leicester was returning with intolerable claims.

While this was going on, Parma had turned upon Sluys, which, like the rest of the coast harbours, was in the hands of the States. This was the news which had necessitated the appointment of Maurice of Na.s.sau. The Dutch and English in Sluys fought magnificently. But the dissensions of the opposing parties outside prevented any effective relief. Leicester's arrival did not, mend matters. The operations intended to effect a relief were muddled. At last the garrison found themselves with no alternative but capitulation on the most honourable terms. In the meanwhile, however, Drake had effected his brilliant destruction of the fleet and stores preparing in Cadiz harbour; though his proceedings were duly disowned by Elizabeth, now zealously negotiating with Parma.

This game of duplicity went on merrily; Elizabeth was intriguing behind the backs of her own ministers; Parma was deliberately deceiving and hoodwinking her, with no thought of anything but her destruction. In France, civil war practically, between Henry of Navarre and Henry of Guise was raging. In the Netherlands, the hostility between the Estates, led by Barneveld and Leicester continued. When the earl was finally recalled to England, and Willoughby was left in command, it was not due to him that no overwhelming disaster had occurred, and that the splendid qualities shown by other Englishmen had counter-balanced politically his own extreme unpopularity.

The great crisis, however, was now at hand. The Armada was coming to destroy England, and when England was destroyed the fate of the Netherlands would soon be sealed. But in both England and the Netherlands the national spirit ran high. The great fleet came; the Flemish ports were held blockaded by the Dutch. The Spaniards had the worse of the fighting in the Channel; they were scattered out of Calais roads by the fireships, driven to flight in the engagement of Gravelines, and the Armada was finally shattered by storms. Philip received the news cheerfully; but his great project was hopelessly ruined.

Of the events immediately following, the most notable were in France--the murder of Guise, followed by that of Henry III., and the claim of Henry IV. to be king. The actual operations in the Netherlands brought little advantage to either side, and the Anglo-Dutch expedition to Lisbon was a failure. But the grand fact which was to be of vital consequence was this: that Maurice of Na.s.sau was about to a.s.sume a new character. The boy was now a man; the sapling had developed into the oak-tree.

_III.--Maurice of Na.s.sau_

The crushing blow, then, had failed completely. But Philip, instead of concentrating on another great effort in the Netherlands, or retrieval of the Armada disaster, had fixed his attention on France. The Catholic League had proclaimed Henry IV.'s uncle, the Cardinal of Bourbon, king as Charles X. Philip, to Parma's despair, meant to claim the succession for his own daughter; and Parma's orders were to devote himself to crushing the Bearnais.

And this was at the moment when Barneveld, the statesman, with young Maurice, the soldier, were becoming decisively recognised as the chiefs of the Dutch. Maurice had realised that the secret of success lay in engineering operations, of which he had made himself a devoted student, and in a reorganisation of the States army and of tactics, in which he was ably seconded by his cousin Lewis William.

While Parma was forced to turn against Henry, who was pressing Paris hard, Breda was captured (March 1590) by a very daring stratagem carried out with extraordinary resolution--an event of slight intrinsic importance, but exceedingly characteristic. During the summer several other places were reduced, but Maurice was planning a great and comprehensive campaign.

The year gave triumphant proof of the genius of Parma as a general, and of the soundness of his views as to Philip's policy. Henry was throttling Paris; by masterly movements Parma evaded the pitched battle, for which Bearnais thirsted, yet compelled his adversary to relinquish the siege. Nevertheless, Henry's activity was hardly checked; and when Parma, in December, returned to the Netherlands, he found the Spanish provinces in a deplorable state, and the Dutch states prospering and progressing; while in France itself Henry's victory had certainly been staved off, but had by no means been made impossible.

Throughout 1591, Maurice's operations were recovering strong places for the States, one after another, from Zutphen and Deventer to Nymegen.

Parma was too much hampered by the bonds Philip had imposed on him to meet Maurice effectively. And Henry was prospering in Normandy and Brittany, and was laying siege to Rouen before the year ended.

In the spring Parma succeeded in relieving Rouen. Then Henry manoeuvred him into what seemed a trap; but his genius was equal to the occasion, and he escaped. But while the great general was engaged in France, Maurice went on mining and sapping his way into Netherland fortresses.

In the meantime, Philip's grand object was to secure the French crown for his own daughter, whose mother had been a sister of the last three kings of France; the present plan being to marry her to the young Duke of Guise--a scheme not to the liking of Guise's uncle Mayenne, who wanted the crown himself. But Philip's chief danger lay in the prospect of Henry turning Catholic.

Parma's death, in December 1592, deprived Philip of the genius which had for years past been the mainstay of his power. Henry's public announcement of his return to the Holy Catholic Church, in the summer of 1593, deprived the Spanish king of nearly all the support he had hitherto received in France. Before this Maurice had opened his attack on the two great cities which the Spaniards still held in the United Provinces, Gertruydenberg and Groningen. His scientific methods secured the former in June. In similar scientific style he raised the siege of Corwarden. A year after Gertruydenberg, Groningen surrendered.

In 1595, France and Spain were at open war again, and in spite of Henry's apostasy he had drawn into close alliance with the United Provinces. The inefficient Archduke Ernest, who had succeeded Parma, died at the beginning of the year. Fuentes, nephew of Alva, was the new governor, _ad interim_. His operations in Picardy were successfully conducted. The summer gave an extraordinary example of human vigour triumphing, both physically and mentally, over the infirmities of old age. Christopher Mondragon, at the age of ninety-two, marched against Maurice, won a skirmish on the Lippe, and spoilt Maurice's campaign. In January 1596 the governorship was taken over by the Archduke Albert. A disaster both to France and England was the Spaniards' capture of Calais, which Elizabeth might have relieved, but offered to do so only on condition of it being restored to England--an offer flatly declined.

At the same time Henry and Elizabeth negotiated a league, but its ostensible arrangements, intended to bring in the United Provinces and Protestant German States, were very different from the real stipulations, the queen promising very much less than was supposed. At the end of October the Estates signed the articles.

Before winter was over, Maurice, with 800 horse, cut up an army of 5,000 men on the heath of Tiel, killing 2,000 and taking 500 prisoners, with a loss of nine or ten men only. The enemy had comprised the pick of the Spaniards' forces, and their prestige was absolutely wiped out. This was just after Philip had wrecked European finance at large by publicly repudiating the whole of his debts. The year 1697 was further remarkable for the surprise and capture of Amiens by the Spaniards, and its siege and recovery by Henry--a siege conducted on the engineering methods introduced by Maurice. But the relations of the provinces with France were now much strained; uncertainty prevailed as to whether either Henry or Elizabeth, or both, might not make peace with Spain separately.

The Treaty of Vervins did, in fact, end the war between France and Spain. It was followed almost at once by the death of Philip, who, however, had just married the infanta to the archduke, and ceded the sovereignty of the Netherlands to them.

_IV.--Winning Through_

In 1600 the States-General planned the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands, but the scheme proved impracticable, and was abandoned.

Ostend was the one position in Flanders held by the United Provinces, with a very mixed garrison. The archduke besieged Ostend (1601). Maurice did not attack him, but captured the keys of the debatable land of Cleves and Juliers. The siege of Ostend developed into a tremendous affair, and a school in the art of war. Maurice, instead of aiming at a direct relief, continued his operations so as to prevent the archduke from a thorough concentration. In the summer of 1602 he was besieging Grave, and Ostend was kept amply supplied from the sea, where the Dutch had inflicted a tremendous defeat on the enemy. But early in 1603 the Spaniards succeeded in carrying some outworks.

The death of Elizabeth, and the accession of James I. to the throne of England affected the European situation; but Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, was the new king's minister. Nevertheless, no long time had elapsed before James was entering upon alliance with the Spaniard.

A new commander-in-chief was now before Ostend in the person of Ambrose Spinola, an unknown young Italian, who was soon to prove himself a worthy antagonist for Maurice. Spinola continued the siege of Ostend, where the garrison were being driven inch by inch within an ever-narrowing circle. This year, Maurice's counter-stroke was the investment of Sluys, which was reduced in three months, in spite of a skilful but unsuccessful attempt at its relief by Spinola. At length, however, the long resistance of Ostend was finished when there was practically nothing of the place left. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, after a siege of over three years.

The next year was a bad one for Maurice. Spinola was beginning to show his quality. Maurice's troops met with one reverse, when what should have been a victory was turned into a rout by an unaccountable panic.

Spinola had learnt his business from Maurice, and was a worthy pupil.

All through 1606 the game of intrigue was going on without any great advance or advantage to anyone. But while the Dutch had been campaigning in the Netherlands, they had also been establishing themselves in the Spice Islands, and in 1607 the rise of the United Provinces as a sea-power received emphatic demonstration in a great fight off Gibraltar. The disparity in size between the Spanish and Dutch vessels was enormous, but the victory was overwhelming. Not a Dutch ship was lost, and the Spanish fleet, which had viewed their approach with laughter, was annihilated. The name of Heemskerk, the Dutch admiral who inspired the battle, and lost his life at its beginning, is enrolled among those of the nation's heroes.

This event had greatly stimulated the desire of the archduke for an armistice, which had been in process of negotiation. With the old king negotiation had been futile, since there was no prospect of his ever conceding the minimum requirements of the provinces. Now, Spain had reached a different position, and Spinola himself required a far heavier expenditure than she was prepared for as the alternative to a peace on the _uti possidetis_ basis. In the provinces, however, Barneveld and Maurice were in antagonism; but an armistice was established and extended, while solemn negotiations went on at The Hague in the beginning of 1608. The proposals accepted next year implied virtually the recognition of the Dutch republic as an independent nation, though nominally there was only a truce for twelve years. The practical effect was to secure not only independence but religious liberty, and the form implied the independence and security of the Indian trade and even of the West Indian trade. So, in 1609 the Dutch republic took its place among the European powers.

MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE

The History of India

Mountstuart Elphinstone was born in October 1779, and joined the Bengal service in 1795, some three years before the arrival in India of Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley. He continued in the Indian service till 1829, and was offered but refused the Governor Generalship. The last thirty years of his life he pa.s.sed in comparative retirement in England, and died in November, 1859, at Hook Wood. He was one of the particularly brilliant group of British administrators in India in the first quarter of the last century. Like his colleagues, Munro and Malcolm, he was a keen student of Indian History. And although some of his views require to be modified in the light of more recent enquiry, his "History of India" published in 1841 is still the standard authority from the earliest times to the establishment of the British as a territorial power.

_I.--The Hindus_

India is crossed from East to West by a chain of mountains called the Vindhyas. The country to the North of this chain is now called Hindustan and that to the South of it the Deckan. Hindustan is in four natural divisions; the valley of the Indus including the Panjab, the basin of the Ganges, Rajputana and Central India. Neither Bengal nor Guzerat is included in Hindustan power. The rainy season lasts from June to October while the South West wind called the Monsoon is blowing.

Every Hindu history must begin with the code of Menu which was probably drawn up in the 9th century B.C. In the society described, the first feature that strikes us is the division into four castes--the sacerdotal, the military, the industrial, and the servile. The Bramin is above all others even kings. In theory he is excluded from the world during three parts of his life. In practice he is the instructor of kings, the interpreter of the military cla.s.s; the king, his ministers, and the soldiers. Third are the Veisyas who conduct all agricultural and industrial operations; and fourth the Sudras who are outside the pale.

The king stands at the head of the Government with a Bramin for chief Counsellor. Elaborate rules and regulations are laid down in the code as to administration, taxation, foreign policy, and war. Land perhaps but not certainly was generally held in common by village communities.

The king himself administers justice or deputes that work to Bramins.

The criminal code is extremely rude; no proportion is observed between the crime and the penalty, and offences against Bramins or religion are excessively penalised. In the civil law the rules of evidence are vitiated by the admission of sundry excuses for perjury. Marriage is indissoluble. The regulations on this subject and on inheritance are elaborate and complicated.

The religion is drawn from the sacred books called the Vedas, compiled in a very early form of Sanskrit. There is one G.o.d, the supreme spirit, who created the universe including the inferior deities. The whole creation is re-absorbed and re-born periodically. The heroes of the later Hindu Pantheon do not appear. The religious observances enjoined are infinite; but the eating of flesh is not prohibited. At this date, however, moral duties are still held of higher account than ceremonial.

Immense respect is enjoined for immemorial customs as being the root of all piety. The distinction between the three superior or "Twice Born"