Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/260

 248 NETHERLANDS times, and his career till his death in 1625 was an almost unbroken series of battles, sieges, and victories. About this time the sovereign- ty of Holland was offered to Elizabeth of England, who declined it, but sent the earl^of Leicester to the assistance of the Dutch with a body of troops. Leicester, however, effected little, and was recalled in 1587. Philip II. died in 1598, and his successor Philip III. for some years continued the effort to subdue the revolted provinces. But the Dutch by this time had created a fleet that made them the first naval power of the world. Their ships were manned by hardy and daring seamen, who swept the most distant seas of Spanish commerce, and finally so impoverished the king of Spain by intercepting the remittances of treasure from the colonies, that in 1609 he agreed to a truce for twelve years. During the peace internal dissensions broke out in Holland between the Oalvinists and Armin- ians, whose theological differences were made the basis of political parties, who contended for their respective tenets with great zeal and bitterness. These dissensions were fomented by Maurice, who aspired to become heredi- tary sovereign, and was already by his influ- ence over the army exercising a species of dictatorship. He was opposed by the vener- able Barneveldt, the head of the Arminian party, or as they came to be called the Remon- strants, from a remonstrance which they pub- lished in favor of universal toleration. The Calvinist party, of which Maurice was chief, were soon known as Anti-Remonstrants, and those names have continued to be used in Hol- land to the present day. The Calvinists pre- vailed in the contest for the political suprem- acy, and Barneveldt and the famous Grotius, another eminent leader of the Remonstrants, were arrested on charges of treason. After an infamous trial, in which party spite and popu- lar clamor were brought to bear on the judges, Barneveldt was condemned and executed, May 13, 1619, at the age of VI years. Grotius by an artifice escaped from prison, and took ref- uge in France. On the expiration of the truce in 1621, the war with Spain was renewed. After the death of Maurice, who was succeed- ed by his brother Frederick Henry, operations on land were not for some time prosecuted with much vigor, but on sea the Dutch dis- played great energy. They attacked Peru with success, and conquered San Salvador and a large portion of Brazil, which at that period belong- ed to the Spanish monarchy. They also made incessant attacks on the Spanish possessions in the East Indies, and laid the foundations of the Dutch empire in that part of the world. On the general pacification of Europe by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, a final treaty was made with Spain, which acknowledged the independence of the United Provinces after it had been practically maintained for 70 years. This treaty also aggrandized the republic with North Brabant and a portion of Limburg. Frederick Henry had in the mean while been succeeded by William II. A few years later the republic became involved in war with the English commonwealth, and several great na- val battles were fought between the celebrated Dutch commanders Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt, and the famous English admi- ral Blake. After his victory near the Good- win sands, Nov. 29, 1652, Van Tromp sailed along the English coast with a broom at his masthead to indicate his sweeping the channel of English ships. In the final engagement, at the close of July, 1653, Van Tromp was killed and the Dutch were defeated with great loss. Peace was soon after concluded between the two republics, and Holland immediately en- gaged in a war with Portugal concerning their respective possessions in Brazil, in which many Portuguese vessels were captured. The war ended by the expulsion of the Dutch from Bra- zil in 1654. In 1665 Charles II. of England declared war against Holland^ and hostilities on the ocean were prosecuted with much vigor. Several desperate naval battles were fought with varying success during the years 1665-'6, the advantage on the whole being with the English. In June, 1667, however, De Ruyter sailed up the Thames with his fleet, burnt the shipping at Sheerness and Chatham, and block- aded for a short period the port of London. A month later the peace of Breda ended the war, and in the beginning of 1668 Holland en- tered into an alliance with England and Swe- den to check the growing power of Louis XIV. of France, who had seized upon the Span- ish Netherlands. But the fickle and deceitful Charles II., being bribed by Louis, ordered a treacherous attack on a rich Dutch fleet from Smyrna in March, 1672, which was bravely re- pulsed. On the 17th of the same month he declared war against his late allies, and sent a force to cooperate with the French. Swe- den also joined the league against the Dutch, and Louis invaded Holland at the head of 100,- 000 men commanded by the first generals of the age, and in a few days conquered the prov- inces of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overyssel. The Dutch, whose forces did not exceed 25,000 men, were besides divided and weakened by the most violent contests between the parti- sans of the house of Orange and the opponents of that party, headed by the grand pensionary John De Witt and his brother Cornelius, by whose influence the office of stadtholder had been abolished in 1650 and the states general made the supreme power. The partisans of De Witt proposed to remove the whole nation to the East Indies rather than submit ; but the young prince of Orange, William III., after- ward king of England, encouraged the people to resist, and declared he would die in the last ditch. He was made stadtholder by acclama- tion, was intrusted with dictatorial power, and the De Witts were massacred by a mob at the Hague. The desperate resolution was taken to cut open the dikes and let in the ocean to