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CHAP. I.]

REVOLUTION IN HOLLAND.

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question by force, and had despatched some of his troops against Amsterdam, while the citizens prepared to defend themselves by cutting the dykes; when the young prince was fortunately saved from his foolish enterprise by the advice of his relative, Van Beverweert, and the mediation of the States-General. William's negociations, before-mentioned, with the French Court for the restoration of the Stuarts, 19 which he had entered into without consulting the States, were cut short by death. He was carried off by the small-pox, November 6th 1650, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. A week after his death his wife gave birth to a son, William Henry, the future King of England.

The death of William was followed by a change in the constitution of the United Netherlands. In a great assembly of the States held at the Hague in January 1561, Holland succeeded in establishing the principle that, though the union should be maintained, there should be no Stadtholder of the United Netherlands; that each province should conduct its own affairs, and that the army should be under the direction of the States-General. In conformity with this decision, the office of Stadtholder remained vacant till 1672. These events, however, not having produced any sensible alteration in the general conduct of the Dutch towards England, the Parliament, with a view to change this disposition, sent St. John, Lord Chief Justice, and Mr. Walter Strickland, as ambassadors extraordinary to the Hague; and to prevent a repetition of the former violence, forty gentlemen were appointed to accompany them. The ambassadors were instructed to propose a complete union and coalition between the two republics, and to insist that no enemy of the English Commonwealth should be sheltered in the Dutch provinces. But they could not succeed in bringing the States into their views, and were even again publicly insulted in the streets.20

It must not be concealed that a good deal of commercial jealousy lay at the bottom of all these proceedings. The Dutch were now at the height of their commercial prosperity, and besides their large colonial trade, which often clashed with that of England, they almost monopolised the carrying trade of Europe. Sir Henry Vane, who was the chief instigator and director of all the transactions with the Dutch, declared it to be his fixed opinion that the commercial interests of Holland and England were irreconcilable, and that in order to a permanent peace, the two republics must either form a coalition, or else that the English must subjugate the

19 On this subject see D'Estrades, Lettres et Négociations.

20 Thurloe, State Papers, vol. i. p. 182; Ludlow, vol. i. p. 344.

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20

NAVIGATION ACT.

[Book V. United Netherlands, and reduce them to the condition of a province.21 Soon after the return of the English ambassadors from their fruitless errand, the House of Commons passed the celebrated Navigation Act entitled "Goods from foreign parts by whom to be imported" (Oct. 9th 1651); by which it was ordained that goods from Asia, Africa, and America should be imported only in English bottoms, as also goods from any part of Europe, unless they were the produce or manufacture of the country to which the vessels belonged. The States-General sent ambassadors to London to endeavour to mitigate this law; but the Parliament, on its side, met their demands with others concerning the massacre that had been committed at Amboyna,22 the fisheries, the right of the flag, &c.

It was during these negociations that an apparently accidental collision between the English and Dutch fleets produced a war between the countries. The renowned Dutch admiral Tromp, being compelled, as he alleged, by stress of weather to take refuge at Dover with a fleet of more than forty sail, there met with Admiral Blake, who commanded a far inferior force; a battle, by whomsoever provoked, ensued, and was fought with obstinacy till night parted the combatants; when the Dutch retired with some loss to their own coast (May 19th 1652). At the news of this affair the Parliament ordered all Dutch ships to be seized, and made preparations for a vigorous war. The Dutch sent the Pensionary Pauw to London to attempt a reconciliation; but the Parliament would listen to no explanations, demanded reparation, and on its being refused, declared war (July 1652),23

We shall not enter into the details of the naval war that followed, which are well known to most English readers. Suffice it to say, that in 1652 and the following year, several sanguinary battles were fought in which Blake, Ayscue, Monk, and Penn distinguished themselves on the side of the English; and Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt on that of the Dutch.24 Victory sometimes favoured one side, sometimes the other; but on the whole the

21 Stubbe, Further Justification of the War with the United Netherlands, p. 118, sqq. 4to. London, 1673.

22 The Dutch had, in 1623, massacred the English settlers in Amboyna, on the pretence that they were engaged in a conspiracy, and had taken from England the little island of Polerone.

23 The Dutch and English manifestoes in Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 28, 31; also, Ordinance of the States-General, ib. p. 35. 24 The principal actions were, in 1652,

between Sir G. Ayscue and De Ruyter, off Plymouth, August 16th (undecided), Bourne and Penn's victory over De Witt and De Ruyter, off the Kertish coast, September 28th; Tromp's victory over Blake in the Downs, November 28th, after which the Dutch admiral fixed a broom to his mainmast. In 1653 Blake and Monk defeated Tromp and De Ruyteroff Portland, February 18th; the English also gained several smaller victories this year, besides the decisive one mentioned in the text.

CHAP. I.] WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND.

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Dutch suffered most, and especially in their commerce. They are said to have lost more during these two years than in the whole eighty years of their struggle with Spain. At length they were so crippled by the great action fought in July 1653, in which the gallant Tromp lost his life, that they were glad to accept of a peace on the terms dictated by England.

Cromwell had now attained to the supreme power in this country; in April he had turned out the Parliament, and in the following December he assumed the title of Lord Protector. Cromwell's foreign policy was as vigorous as his domestic. It was his hope, he used to say, to make the name of Englishman as much respected as ever that of Roman had been. He desired very much to obtain a footing on the Continent, both as a means of extending English trade and of supporting the Protestant interest in Europe. Hence when Beverningk came as ambassador from the States to treat for peace, the Protector, as the Parliament had done before, insisted on a union of the two republics; but this the Dutch immediately rejected as impracticable; nor would they listen to another proposition that there should be three Englishmen either in the Dutch Council of State, or in the States-General, and three Dutchmen in the English Council.25 The English demands were also in other respects so high that the Dutch prepared to strengthen themselves with alliances in order to continue the war; and especially they entered into a treaty with Denmark, whose royal family was connected with the Stuarts; and that power engaged to shut the Sound against the English. De Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland and President of the States-General, now almost directed the counsels of the United Netherlands. At the time of his election in 1653, he was only twenty-five years of age; but he had already displayed all the best qualities of a statesman, besides a love of literature and a philosophical talent which had been developed by the teaching of Descartes. Although public feeling in the Netherlands was very much inflamed against England, De Witt was so convinced of the necessity for a peace that he did not hesitate to stem the popular current, and as Cromwell also lowered his demands and abandoned the idea of a coalition, a treaty was at length concluded, April 15th 1654. A chief point of contention was, the sovereignty of the seas.26 The Dutch yielded the honour of the flag, and agreed to salute English

25 Verbaal van Beverningk, ap. Van Kampen, Gesch. der Niederlande, B. ii. S.

151.

26 The English demands on this head were founded on Selden's Mare Clausum,

which the Parliament had caused to be translated by Nedham; and it was published by special command in November 1652. Harris, Life of Cromwell, p. 264.

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CROMWELL MAKES PEACE WITH HOLLAND. [Book V.

men-of-war by striking the flag and lowering the topsail; but the Protector, on his side, abated some of his former pretensions; as, for instance, that whole fleets should render these honours to a single man-of-war, and that the Dutch should not send more than a certain number of ships of war into the British seas without the express permission of England. The Dutch agreed to give no assistance to the Stuarts, and to make atonement and compensation for the massacre at Amboyna and the injury done to English trade in the East Indies and other places. The province of Holland alone, in a separate article, engaged that no prince of the House of Orange should ever be invested with the dignity of Stadtholder, or even be appointed Captain-General.27 The King of Denmark was included in the treaty, the States-General engaging to make good any losses the English merchants had sustained by the seizure of their ships at Copenhagen.

After the conclusion of this peace, Cromwell was at liberty to take a part in the great debate between France and Spain, both which Powers were soliciting his friendship. The Protector himself, as well as most of his Council, preferred a war with Spain. An attack upon the Spanish trade and colonies afforded a tempting prospect, whilst a war with France offered no such advantages. Cromwell's religious views had also great influence in determining him against Spain; which, with Austria, was the chief supporter in Europe of that popery which the Puritans so much abhorred. The same feeling had embued the Protector with a great fondness and admiration of Sweden, distinguished among the northern nations as the champion of Protestantism; and therefore made him averse to a war with France, the close ally of Sweden. Thus, during this period, the foreign policy of the two maritime republics took an exactly opposite direction. After the Peace of Westphalia, it was no longer Spain, but France, as an ambitious and powerful neighbour, that became the object of apprehension in the United Netherlands; whilst in the great northern war entered into by Sweden about this time against Poland, Denmark, and their allies, the Dutch, in the interests of their Baltic commerce, opposed the Swedes and supported the Danes.

In the course of 1654, Cromwell made some advantageous commercial treaties with Sweden, Portugal, and Denmark; Portugal especially granted the English an exclusive right of commerce with herself and her colonies.28 The negociations were continued with the Spanish Cabinet, which made the Protector the most dazzling offers. Besides the personal bait of assisting him to the

27 Dumont, t. vi. pt. ii. p. 74.

28 Ibid. p. 80 sqq.

CHAP. I.]

ATTACKS SPAIN.

23

crown of England, Spain offered to aid him in taking Calais, provided he would help Condé in a descent upon Guyenne. But, while Cromwell pretended to listen to these offers, his resolution had been already taken. His demands upon Spain were such as it was impossible for that power to grant-free trade with the Spanish Indies, and complete exemption for British subjects from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.29 The Spanish ambassador said that “to ask a liberty from the Inquisition and free sailing to the West Indies, was to ask his master's two eyes." In the winter of 1654-5, two fleets left the shores of England whose destination was unknown. One commanded by Penn, with a body of troops under Venables, sailed to the West Indies with the design of seizing the Spanish colony of Hispaniola. It failed in that enterprise, and though it took Jamaica, both commanders were on their return incarcerated in the Tower. The other fleet, under Blake, which entered the Mediterranean, had a sort of roving commission. It employed itself in taking some French ships, in exacting reparation from the Grand Duke of Tuscany for some alleged former losses, while the Pope trembled at its neighbourhood; it then sailed to the coast of Africa, to chastise the deys of Algiers and Tunis for their piracies. But its principal object was the seizure of the Spanish American galleons. The Spaniards, on receiving the news of the unwarrantable attack upon their West Indian possessions, immediately declared war against England, and Blake received fresh instructions to lie in wait for their American fleet. For want of water he was compelled to abandon the enterprise to one of his captains, who succeeded in capturing two galleons and destroying others; and Blake himself soon after met his death in another and more honourable enterprise against the Spaniards in the Canaries.

Although Cromwell had broken with Spain, he had not yet made any alliance with France. The two countries were for some time kept apart by a religious question. Early in 1655 the Duke of Savoy had commenced a bloody persecution against the Vaudois who dwelt in the High Alps of Piedmont. The numbers of these poor people had increased so much that there was no longer any room for them in the three upper valleys, in which alone their religious liberties were guaranteed, and they had consequently descended lower down the mountains. In the middle of winter appeared an edict ordering them, under pain of death, to quit their new abodes 29 British merchants enjoyed an immunity from the jurisdiction of that tribunal, provided they caused no scandal; but Cromwell wanted this clause abolished.

Thurloe, vol. i. p. 706. For the negociations with France and Spain, Ibid. p. 759 sqq.

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