The Story of Nations - Holland/Chapter 32

Popular as William was with his countrymen, he always had differences with the city of Amsterdam. This rich seat of commerce was proud of its municipal privileges, and jealous of any interference with its municipal independence. Amsterdam, in common with the other Dutch towns, had been induced to submit the officers whom it appointed to civil office, to the approval of the Stadtholder. Now, taking advantage of William's absence, they presented their nominees to the Court of Holland, on the ground that in the absence of the Stadtholder, they were acting under their charter. But the State declined to act on their recommendation, or to accept their view of the charter, and after a somewhat angry quarrel the city had to yield.

Again they took offence at Bentinck, the favourite counsellor of the king, who had been raised to the English peerage, and to the great dissatisfaction of the English nobility, had been lavishly enriched by William, while retaining his place as a Dutch noble in the States. They, alleged that he had transferred his allegiance to another sovereign, that he was naturalized in another country, and was therefore no longer a Hollander. But here, again, they were opposed by the rest of Holland, and after having excited the vehement anger of William, were obliged to give way. I refer to these facts in order to show how considerable was William's influence in his native country, where he was able to override the strongly expressed wishes of Amsterdam. In the same way, William blockaded and reduced the town of Goes for venturing to resist his authority. He was far more powerful in Holland than in England, and certainly in the face of the trouble before them, it was expedient that the executive should be strengthened.

It is true that the pride and aggressiveness of Louis were irritating the whole of Europe. The outrageous violence of the French armies in the Palatinate had revived the worst memories of the Thirty Years' War. Louis was urging the Turks to attack Germany on the east, in order to prevent Germany from resisting his aggressions. He was threatening the house of Savoy on the Italian frontier, and harassing Charles the Second on the Spanish. He had occupied the papal dominions in Avignon, and had annexed them. Every one of his neighbours was irritated and alarmed, and it was not difficult, at least on paper, to construct the Grand Alliance referred to in the last chapter. But it was not so easy to put the Alliance in motion.

Holland and England were the two countries which really resisted with any effect the power of the French king. Spain was politically helpless. Her vast empire was an encumbrance rather than an aid. A century and a half of the worst possible kind of government had ruined the Spanish provinces in America. The Government of Spain itself was as demoralizing and disastrous as that of Mexico and Peru. Spanish statesmen were incredibly corrupt and rapacious, and the body of the people of Spain was sunk in sloth and apathy. Industry was held in dishonour. Public spirit was lost. The old discipline of the Spanish army had passed away. It is true that Spanish pride still survived. But it was pride without energy.

Leopold of Germany, who reigned from 1658 to 1705, was a narrow, selfish, sordid bigot. He had to defend himself from the Turks in the East, and the French in the West. His wisdom would have been by timely and generous conciliation, to have united, in the bonds of a common interest, all the parts of his ill-cemented empire against the common enemy and the common danger. But he was far more interested in persecuting his Protestant subjects than in securing them against foreign foes. Besides, the Thirty Years' War had ruined Germany. The country needed union even more than peace, in order to recover itself, and Germany was divided against itself. The future of Europe seemed almost hopeless in 1689. There were no powers in the civilized world which could be relied on in the coming struggle except Holland and the newly-enfranchised kingdom of England.

William had a far harder task with the country which accepted rather than welcomed him, than he had with his native country. At first all seemed to go well. The defection from James was universal in Great Britain, and the exiled family never had any real party in the country again. But in Ireland William had to fight for his crown, and the conquest of Ireland occupied all the energies of the English Government during the first years of the Revolution, and there was but a faint opposition to Louis and his projects. They were apparently near to being realized. In Flanders, Luxemburg won the battles of Fleurus, Steinkirk, and Neerwinden; in Western Italy, Catinat was victorious at Staffard and Marsaille; and Tourville, the French admiral, inflicted serious and apparently irreparable damage on the combined Dutch and English fleets at Beachy Head. The strong fortresses of Mons and Namur were captured, and it seemed that the immediate object of the French king's ambition would be attained in the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands. The military reputation of France remained at the highest as long as Luxemburg lived. He died at the end of the year 1694, when his services were most needed.

William was unfortunate as a commander, for he had to fight against the most accomplished generals which the art of war had yet produced. He was defeated in every pitched battle which he fought in Europe. But it was early noticed that he lost less by a defeat than other generals. His power of recovery after a repulse was remarkable and continual. The victories of Louis, therefore, in the Low Countries were comparatively barren, and the stubborn resistance of the Dutch and English made it plain at last that the conquest of Flanders, if it were ever to be effected, would be accomplished only after a prolonged and ruinous struggle. “The last pistole wins,” was the frequent comment of Louis, but as yet he did not guess where this would be found. In course of time, he discovered that the resources of England and Holland were greater than those of France, and that they would conic out of the war with undiminished powers.

The first serious check which Louis suffered was the battle of La Hogue, fought on May 19, 1692. The exiled king, James, deceived by his correspondents, and still more deceived by the hopes which exiles always entertain, was under the impression that an invasion of England would not only be feasible but successful, He had been assured that it would be so by the Jacobites and malcontent Whigs; he was under the impression that the seamen in the fleet desired to restore him, and would refuse to fight against the French, and he had actually been in correspondence with Russel, the admiral. But the King of France had always been dissuaded from the project by Louvois, and Louvois was a person whose advice Louis could not disregard, for he had done more to secure the military supremacy of Louis than any man living. But on July 6, 1691, Louvois died suddenly after an interview with the king, when high words passed between them. Though the quarrel had been so angry, the king appointed the son of his late minister to the office which his father had held, and with the most unfortunate results.

Louis now determined to invade England, with an army of French and Irish troops - those Irish troops which, after the surrender of Limerick, had passed over to the French king's service. It was impossible to conceive a worse act of imprudence than to attempt an invasion of England with Irish forces. Nothing had contributed more to the downfall of James than the collection of an Irish army in the neighbourhood of London. In the hands of the English enemy, whose name was an object of absolute detestation throughout England, the enrolment of such an army would be sure to excite the most stubborn resistance even from those who had hitherto been disaffected or mutinous. For the English people, and, for the matter of that, the Dutch, however much they may have quarrelled or grumbled when danger was remote, have always forgotten their differences and made an effective truce as soon as ever danger is near. In order to still more irritate his former subjects against him, James put out a manifesto, in which he proscribed the nation whom he imagined to be anxious for his restoration. The Government very wisely reprinted this insane document; with some very natural and practical comments.

The fleet which was to convoy the three hundred transports to England consisted of seventy-nine ships of the line, some of them being the finest which the dockyards of Brest and Toulon had turned out. Tourville was again commander, and was strictly ordered to fight, and it was determined to undertake the enterprise before the English and Dutch fleet had got to sea. In order to assure himself, James had sent his emissaries among the English admirals. Some of them gave these agents fair words, and forthwith communicated their information to the English Government. The anxiety which the banished king felt, and his desire to acquaint himself with the strength of the feeling in his favour, while it deceived him, undeceived and forewarned the administration. The weather in the Channel is always capricious, and the time for the rendezvous had long passed by, and the French line was not yet formed.

The combined English and Dutch fleet was superior in numbers to that of the French, but in the first part of the battle the vessels engaged, owing to the state of the wind, were about equal on both sides. But, after the contest had been prolonged for five hours, and Tourville saw that he had no immediate prospect of a successful invasion, the wind changed, and the whole allied fleet was able to take part in the battle. It was soon over, and the relics of the French armament fled to Cherbourg and La Hogue, where the army of invasion was waiting to embark. On the 24th of May, after five days' incessant fighting, the French fleet was totally destroyed. All hopes of naval supremacy passed away from France. There was hardly any naval victory which caused more national exultation both in England and Holland than that of La Hogue. The great commerce of the Republic was now placed in comparative safety, and the last pistole was more likely than ever to be in the Banks of Amsterdam and London.

Still, the Grand Alliance was very nearly collapsing. The northern Powers of Denmark and Sweden, never very hearty in their co-operation, began to grow cool and finally even hostile. The several powers of Germany threatened to make a separate peace with France if they were not handsomely bribed. They even went so far as to state that Louis was ready to pay them for deserting the common cause, and that it was therefore the policy of England and Holland to outbid Louis. Even the German emperor was of opinion, and pretty clearly expressed it, that it was the duty of England and Holland to undertake the defence of his own frontier, and to find him money for the purpose of enabling him to achieve further conquests over the Turks. “I cannot,” said William, in writing to his friend Heinsius, “offer a suggestion without being met with a demand for a subsidy.” But William succeeded in keeping the coalition together, by giving these royal mendicants, not all that they asked, but more than they had a right to expect. He saved the alliance, but he found it hard to induce the allies to fight.

The Spanish Government, at last seriously alarmed, offered William the regency of the Netherlands. But William refused it. He knew that if he took it, the religious differences between the ruler and people would make his authority precarious. The Netherlands, once the most Protestant country in Europe, had now, thanks to the Inquisition, become as Catholic as Spain itself, and much more restive. It was not possible at the end of the seventeenth century to restore the Pacification of Ghent. He therefore recommended the nomination of the Elector of Bavaria, who had good reason for being the enemy of France. A few years later, the Elector found its friendship even more mischievous. But the delay and half-heartedness of the allies led to the loss of Namur.

And now a series of events were recurring, of which historians are apt to take no notice, but which had more to do with the rapid exhaustion of France than any defeats or victories could have. The harvest of 1692 was unfavourable, and for six or seven years the harvests in Western Europe remained unfavourable. In a country like England, where ordinary prices were nearly doubled, much distress prevailed. In France, where the peasant farmer was forced to bear nearly all the charges of government, the cost of the buildings at Versailles and Marli, and the cost of the great king's army, the calamity was ruinous. In Holland, which imported nine-tenths of its food, and had a habit of keeping a store at Amsterdam, which would be sufficient for the wants of two or three years, which it imported from all parts of the world, whence food could be got, the rise in prices was inconvenient, but not disastrous. The period from 1692 to 1698 inclusive was long remembered in tradition as the seven dear years.

The year 1693 and 1694 were marked by brilliant victories, by horrible cruelties, by great sufferings, but by small military results. Louis began to find his resources fail him. But in the second of these years, the foundation of the Bank of England at once contributed and utilized the resources of the country. In 1695, William undertook and achieved the recapture of Namur, to the great chagrin of Louis. Early in the next year, Louis was unquestionably privy as was also James, to a plot devised for the murder of William, and there is little doubt that Berwick was sent to England in order to encourage, if not to advise, the conspirators. The plot failed, the culprits being detected and executed, as indeed all other conspiracies against William's life failed.

At last both sides were exhausted. Louis was ready to acknowledge William's title, and William saw that for a time the Netherlands, the barrier of Holland, were safe. But the Powers which sacrificed the least, and got the largest subsidies through the war, put forward the most preposterous claims. Spain and Austria demanded what Louis was not likely to grant, and they had no power of enforcing. The absurd formalities of diplomacy seemed likely to postpone the settlement to an indeterminate date, when William and Bentinck entered into a distinct negotiation with the French envoy, and rapidly settled the terms of peace. The arrangement nearly fell through owing to the selfish and dilatory action of Spain and Austria, which gave Louis an opportunity of insisting on the retention of Strasburg. On the 10th of September the treaty was signed, and the first part of this long war with France was ended.