Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/451

 prince in private of the factious character inherent in a protestant people. ‘The prince told all this to his natural uncle (and to no one else until after Charles's death), and they were both amazed’ at such a frank expression of religious opinion. John Evelyn supped with him during his stay in England on 15 Dec. 1670. Zuylestein was appointed a general of foot in the Dutch army in February 1672, and shared with his nephew the prince and Count Horn in the attack on Woerden, a town in South Holland, held by one of Louis XIV's garrisons. Zuylestein repulsed an attack by a relieving force, and the town sent a message with a view to capitulation, but on that same night, 12 Oct. 1672, Zuylestein was slain in an attack upon his quarters led in person by the French general Luxembourg. He was wounded in eighteen places, and his body was almost hacked to pieces, a circumstance which Le Clerc regarded as a just retribution for the prominent part that Zuylestein had taken in planning, if not in executing, the cruel murder of the De Witts (Hist. des Provinces-Unies, 1738, iii. 312).

William Henry entered the Dutch cavalry in 1672, but as a young man appears to have been best known at The Hague for his gallantry and his good looks, and as a companion of the prince's pleasures. He was greatly trusted by William, and acquitted himself so well on a mission of observation to England in August 1687, the nominal purpose being to condole with the queen-consort upon the death of her mother, the Dowager Duchess Laura of Modena, that he was named envoy upon a much more important occasion in the summer of the following year. His avowed purpose was now to felicitate Mary Beatrice upon the birth of a prince, his real object to inform himself of the temper of the nation and to gauge the probability of James's summoning a parliament and adopting a more rational and conciliatory policy. For this purpose it was thought that an envoy with the frank and martial exterior of a cavalry colonel, such as Zuylestein, would be able to operate with much greater freedom than a recognised diplomat of such known astuteness as Dykvelt. But beneath the brave carriage of the dragoon there lurked in Zuylestein no ordinary power of dissimulation. He was received by the queen at St. James's on 28 June 1688 (London Gazette, 30 June), and the cordiality of his messages inspired Mary Beatrice to write a letter of playful affection to her ‘dear lemon’ (the Princess of Orange); but he wrote at once an account of the sceptical manner in which the birth was received in London, and intrigued expeditiously and effectively with all the prominent malcontents. Clarendon records a number of his movements during July. He returned with Sidney to The Hague early in August, taking with him letters to William from Nottingham, Churchill, Herbert, Bishop Compton, Sunderland, and others. On his return he was promoted a major-general in the Dutch army. On 16 Oct. he embarked on the same ship with William at Helvoetsluys. On 15 Dec. he was sent by William from Windsor with a message urging James to stay at Rochester and not on any account return to London. He found on his arrival that James had already returned to Whitehall, whither Zulestein promptly followed him (Hatton Corresp. ii. 127; London Gazette, No. 2410). In response to William's blunt message, James expressed a hope that the prince might be induced to meet him at Whitehall. Zuylestein was ready with an uncompromising answer to the effect that the prince would not enter London while any royal troops remained in it. This had the desired effect of scaring James from the palace.

Zuylestein was naturalised in England on 11 May 1689, and was appointed master of the robes to the king on 23 May, holding the post down to 1695. His regiment was retained for service in the north of England; in May 1691 it was at Durham (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1690–1, p. 265). He accompanied William to Ireland, but in August 1690 left the campaign there on a mission to Whitehall, where his tanned face ‘frighted’ the queen, though she regarded him as the harbinger of her husband's return (ib. Dom. 1690, p. 97). On 12 Sept. 1690 he was promoted a lieutenant-general in the English army. In a list of this date (Commons' Journals, xii. 635) he is mentioned as an English subject with the rank of lieutenant-general and pay of 1,460l. per annum. In January 1691 he accompanied William to Holland, and had a perilous adventure in a small boat in a premature attempt to land (, ii. 165). In July 1693, in the sanguinary battle of Neerwinden, after distinguishing himself and, it is said, rescuing William from a position of great danger, Zuylestein was slightly wounded and taken to Namur; he was exchanged and returned to the camp on 8 Aug. In November 1693 his regiment was again ordered to Flanders.

On 10 May 1695 Zuylestein was created Baron Enfield, Viscount Tunbridge, and Earl of Rochford, and received a grant of part of the Marquis of Powis's estates (Rawlinson MS. A 289); he took his seat on