OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS: FROM THE DEATH OF WILLIAM THE SILENT TO THE BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; IN FOUR VOLUMES.-VOL. L 1584-86. WITH PORTRAITS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, by JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE indulgence with which the History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic was received has encouraged me to prosecute my task with renewed industry. A single word seems necessary to explain the somewhat increased proportions which the present work has assumed over the original design. The intimate connection which was formed between the Kingdom of England and the Republic of Holland, immediately after the death of William the Silent, rendered the history and the fate of the two commonwealths for a season almost identical. The years of anxiety and suspense during which the great Spanish project for subjugating England and reconquering the Netherlands, by the same invasion, was slowly matured, were of deepest import for the future destiny of those two countries and for the cause of national liberty. The deep-laid conspiracy of Spain and Rome against human rights deserves to be patiently examined, for it is one of the great lessons of history. The crisis was long and doubtful, and the health-perhaps the existence of England and Holland, and, with them, of a great part of Christendom, was on the issue. History has few so fruitful examples of the dangers which come from superstition and despotism, and the |