4

THE ARCHDUKE ALBERT GOVERNOR. [CHAP. XXVII.

Brabant, whose pay was in arrear. The Archduke Ernest, the tameness of whose character made him almost useless in important affairs, having died in February, 1595, at the age of forty-two, Philip appointed in his place Ernest's brother, the Archduke Albert, formerly Viceroy of Portugal, and also substituted him for Ernest as the future husband of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. Although Albert had been made Archbishop of Toledo and a Cardinal, he had not taken priest's orders, and a dispensation for his marriage might easily be procured. With Albert returned Philip William, the eldest son of William the Silent, after a captivity of twenty-eight years in Spain. By so long an exile his spirit had been completely broken; by the arts of the Jesuits he had been converted into a bigoted papist; and Philip now thought that he might be made an instrument for the recovery of the Netherlands. Yet Philip William had always cherished a respect for his father's memory, and during his imprisonment he had thrown from the window a Spanish officer who ventured to speak lightly of his father, and killed him on the spot.1

It was in January of this year, as we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, that Henry IV. declared war against the King of Spain. Besides the expedition of Velasco in the south, Philip II. ordered the Spaniard Fuentes, who, till the arrival of Albert, conducted the government of the Netherlands, to invade the north of France; and Fuentes, having quelled the mutiny of the Spanish troops, and having left Modragon with sufficient forces to keep Prince Maurice in check, set off with 15,000 men, with the design of recovering Cambray. Le Catelet and Dourlens yielded to his arms; Ham was betrayed to him by the treachery of the governor, and in August Fuentes sat down before Cambray. It will be recollected that the Duke of Anjou had made over that place to his mother, Catharine de' Medici, who had appointed Balagny to be governor of it. During the civil wars of France, Balagny had established himself there as a little independent sovereign, and called himself Prince of Cambray; but after the discomfiture of the League he had been compelled to declare himself, and had acknowledged his allegiance to the King of France. His extortion and tyranny having rendered him detested by the inhabitants, they sent a message to Henry IV. requesting him to dismiss Balagny, and receive them under his immediate authority. Unfortunately, 1 Motley, United Netherlands, vol. iii. ch. xxxii.

CHAP. XXVII.] ALLIANCE BETWEEN HENRY AND ELIZABETH. 5 however, Balagny and his wife had gained over Grabrielle d'Estrées; at her instance Henry declined the request of the citizens, who, to avenge themselves, delivered Cambray to the Spaniards, October 2nd. After the surrender of the citadel, Balagny's wife, a sister of Bussy d'Amboise, starved herself to death for vexation. Fuentes now returned into the Netherlands, where the campaign had not been marked by any memorable event.

The Cardinal Archduke Albert arrived at Brussels in February, 1596, when Fuentes resigned his command, and returned to Spain. Albert also directed his principal attention to the war against France, and sent a peaceful message to Prince Maurice and the United Provinces, which, however, met with no attention. Henry IV. had been engaged since the winter in the siege of La Fère, a little town at the junction of the Serre and Oise. He had received reinforcements from England as well as from Germany and Holland. He had endeavoured to excuse his apostasy to Queen Elizabeth, as an act of political necessity; and although she viewed it with alarm and indignation, her hatred and fear of Spain induced her still to assist the French King, though her succours were no longer bestowed so liberally and so cordially as before. Albert marched to Valenciennes with 20,000 men, with the avowed intention of relieving La Fère; but instead of attempting that enterprise, he despatched De Rosne, a French renegade who had entered the service of Spain, with the greater part of the forces, to surprise Calais; and that important place was taken by assault, April 17th, before Henry could arrive for its defence. La Fère surrendered May 22nd; and Henry then marched with his army towards the coast of Picardy, where he endeavoured, but in vain, to provoke the Spaniards to give him battle. After fortifying Calais and Ardres, Albert withdrew again into the Netherlands.

In the negotiations between Elizabeth and Henry in the preceding year, the English Queen had demanded to be put in possession of Calais or Boulogne, as a security for the charges of the war; a demand which Henry had scornfully rejected. During the investment of Calais by the Spaniards, Elizabeth had renewed her proposal, in case she should be the means of saving it, when Henry again indignantly refused, observing that he would rather receive a box of the ear from the King of Spain than a fillip from her.' Nevertheless, Elizabeth, alarmed at the occupation by the Spaniards of a port which afforded such

Du Vair, in Life of Lord Chancellor Egerton, p. 407.

6

CADIZ CAPTURED BY THE ENGLISH.

[CHAP. XXVII. facilities for the invasion of England, soon afterwards concluded another offensive and defensive alliance with Henry IV. (May 24th), in which the contracting parties pledged themselves to make no separate peace or truce with Philip II.; and they invited all those States and Princes, who had reason to dread the machinations of that ambitious monarch, to join the alliance.' The treaty was acceded to by the Dutch; but the German Protestant Princes, offended by Henry's apostasy, and alarmed by the war then raging between the Austrians and the Turks, refused to enter into it. The treaty, however, had little effect. Elizabeth could not be induced to lend the French King more than 2,000 men, and that on condition of his maintaining them; nor would she allow the armament under Essex, which Henry had in vain solicited for the relief of Calais, to co-operate with him in the Netherlands, but despatched it to the coasts of Spain.

The hostile preparations in the Spanish ports had for some time back excited great alarm in England. Another attempt at invasion was apprehended, and a large armament was fitted out under Lord Howard of Effingham as admiral, and the Earl of Essex as commander of the land forces. The expedition was also accompanied by Sir Walter Raleigh, and other persons of naval and military renown. The fleet, which after the junction of twenty-two Dutch ships, consisted of 150 sail, with about 14,000 men on board, cast anchor in the Bay of Cadiz, June 20th. On the following day, after an obstinate contest of some hours' duration, two of the four great Spanish galleons were captured, and two burnt. The rest of the Spanish fleet were driven into the harbour, and rather than pay the ransom demanded the Duke of Medina Sidonia caused them to be burnt-a third of the Spanish navy. Essex, then landing with 3,000 soldiers, succeeded in penetrating into the town; and in the market-place he was joined by the admiral and another party, who had entered at a different quarter. The inhabitants now surrendered, purchasing their lives with 120,000 crowns, and abandoning the city with its goods and merchandise to the conquerors. The bold, but perhaps not impracticable, plans of Essex, to penetrate into the heart of Andalusia, or, at all events, to hold possession of the Isle of Cadiz with 3,000 or 4,000 men, having been rejected by a majority of the commanders, the fleet set sail for England; and after making two descents of no great importance on the Spanish

The treaty is in Dumont, t. v. pt. i. p. 525.

2 6,360 soldiers, about 1,000 gentlemen volunteers, and 6,672 sailors.

CHAP. XXVII.]

WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1597.

7

coast, arrived at Plymouth after an absence of about ten weeks. The loss suffered by the Spaniards was estimated at 20,000,000 ducats.

Thus, while Philip II. was affecting the conqueror, a severe blow was struck in his own dominions. The secret of his weakness was revealed; and if the head of the colossus was of gold, its feet were shown to be of clay. The English, on the other hand, acquired, even from the Spaniards themselves, the praise not only of bravery, but also of humanity and moderation, for the manner in which they had used their victory. The coolness of Essex's reception by the Queen and the intrigues which followed are well known to the reader of English history. Infuriated by the insults received at Cadiz, Philip II. prepared at Lisbon a new armada for the invasion of England, or rather Ireland, and was amusing himself with the dream of establishing his daughter, the Infanta, on the English throne, as the lineal descendant of John of Gaunt. Essex, with Lord Thomas Howard and Raleigh, had been intrusted with a counter-expedition against Spain; but the fleets of both nations were defeated by the elements. The Adelantado of Castile, on sailing from Ferrol, was caught in a terrible storm, which dispersed and damaged his fleet. On again collecting his ships, instead of attempting to land in England, he made the best of his way back to the Spanish coast, but lost by another storm sixteen sail in the Bay of Biscay. The enterprise was then abandoned. On the other hand Essex had also been driven back to the port by stress of weather, and his ships were so much damaged that most of the gentlemen volunteers refused again to put to sea. Essex himself, however, with a small squadron, sailed to the Azores, and captured Fayal, Graciosa, and Flores, but missed falling in with the Spanish fleet from the Indies, which was the chief object of the expedition. On their return with a few prizes, the English were enveloped, near the Scilly Isles, in the same storm which dispersed the Spanish fleet, but contrived to get safely into their own harbours. But to return to the affairs of the Netherlands.

During Albert's absence in France in 1596 nothing of importance was undertaken by Prince Maurice, who had no great force at his disposal; and the Archduke on his return laid siege to Hulst, which at last surrendered to the Spaniards (August 18th). This disaster, however, was compensated early in 1597

According to Philip himself, 40 ships with 5,000 men. Letter of Philip to Al

bert, ap. Motley, United Netherlands, vol. iii. ch. xxii, sub. fin.

8

LOSS AND RECOVERY OF AMIENS.

[CHAP. XXVII. by a splendid victory gained by Prince Maurice at Turnhout, where he defeated and destroyed a large body of Spanish troops. His success on this occasion is ascribed to his having furnished his cavalry with carabines; an invention which afterwards came into general use, and gave rise to that description of troops called "dragoons." Archduke Albert, however, soon afterwards consoled himself for this blow by taking Amiens. Its capture was effected by an ingenious stratagem of the Spanish general Puertocarrero. Setting out from Dourlens with 3,000 men, Puertocarrero halted them before dawn at an hermitage about a quarter of a mile from Amiens. He then sent forward three

officers and a dozen of his most resolute soldiers, disguised like peasants in smock-frocks, under which were hidden swords and pistols. Arrived at the gate of the town, one of the pretended peasants let fall, as if by accident, a bag which he carried on his shoulders, filled with nuts and apples. This incident excited the merriment of the guard, who began scrambling for the fruit. While they were thus employed another peasant approached driving a waggon loaded with large beams of timber. As soon as the waggon was directly under the gateway the horses were disengaged; an officer then discharged his pistol, at which concerted signal the men fell upon and killed most of the guard. In vain the sentinel on the top of the gate attempted to lower the portcullis; its descent was arrested by the load of timber, and meanwhile Puertocarrero, rushing forward with his men, entered the town and captured it with but little

resistance.

Henry IV., after holding an Assembly of Notables at Rouen, was amusing himself at Paris when he received the news of this terrible blow. For some moments he seemed thunderstruck, but after a little reflection exclaimed, "I have played the King of France long enough: it is now time to be the King of Navarre!" and turning to Gabrielle, who was weeping by his side, added, "A truce to our loves, my mistress; I must mount my horse and go again to the wars." It was indeed time. The loss of Amiens, following so rapidly on that of Dourlens, Cambray, and Calais, had begun to shake all confidence in Henry's good fortune. A great deal of discontent existed in France, occasioned by the taxes which the King had found it necessary to impose; the Hugonots also were in motion; whilst the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mercœur allied themselves with Spain, as we have mentioned in the preceding chapter. In the extremity