Dutch war and politics

351-083

Jan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619)

The Netherlands,
1600-1650

The Dutch Revolt had begun in 1572; after thirty years of intermittent warfare, both Spain and the Netherlands were running out of resources. Many wanted peace, and these included Jan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619) the Advocate (Pensionary) of Holland.

As the price of a truce, Spain wanted the Dutch to stop the East and West Indies Companies from trading in "Spanish territory"; naturally, this aroused fierce opposition in Amsterdam - home to the merchants making most from the trade. The merchants were joined by the stadholder, Prince Maurits (Maurice) who thought that the Spanish merely wanted a breathing space to regroup and then re-impose Spanish "tyranny" on the Netherlands.

War-weary and facing further tax increases, the provinces' representatives backed Oldenbarnevelt (after Spain had largely backed down on the West and East Indies Companies).
9 April 1609 the Twelve Years Truce was signed.

Neither the Dutch nor the Spanish dropped their guard because of the Truce. Opposing fortified towns lined the border.

Domestic conflict followed hard on the heels of peace abroad. After the Remonstrance, disputes between Calvinists and Arminians became open. The Arminian leaders Simon Episcopius (1583-1643) and Johan Uytenbogaert (1557-1644) had asked in their Remonstrance that the official doctrine of the Dutch Reformed Church (The Netherlands Confession) should be altered to accommodate Arminian beliefs. Arminians wanted to remain as ministers of the Reformed Church but the Contra-Remonstrants wanted these "heretics" expelled.

Holland and Utrecht were centers of Arminian/Remonstrant ideas, but Gelderland and Zeeland were home to the Counter-Remonstrant/Calvinist viewpoint. Other provinces split more evenly, but with rural areas being predominately Calvinist.

The Counter-Remonstrants hoped for a National Synod to decide the doctrinal and disciplinary issues (knowing that Calvinist ministers would outnumber their opponents). The Remonstrants looked to the secular authorities, and particularly to Oldenbarnevelt for support.

Oldenbarnevelt and the States of Holland did try and help the Remonstrants. They declared that each province was independent in religious matters, and worked to protect Arminians from the mobs rioting against the Remonstrance. Oldenbarnevelt did this by passing a "Sharp Resolution" (August 1617) allowing provinces to recruit and arm waardgelders - special troops answerable to city government.

By his own admission, Prince Maurits did not understand the theological issues, but he did know that Oldenbarnevelt wanted to prolong the truce (Maurits wanted war), and objected to military forces being raised that were not under his command. He was therefore eager to see Oldenbarnevelt fall from power.

Maurits found support among urban artisans; many of these were suffering from the Truce, which allowed cheap cloth to pour in from the Spanish Netherlands and threatened Northern clothworkers' pay and jobs. Some of their discontent found expression in violent Counter-Remonstrant protests.

Matters came to a head in 1618, when the States General convoked a national synod at Dordrecht (Dort). With the support of the States General Maurits mounted a rapid coup. He arrested Oldenbarnevelt and Oldenbarnevelt's adherents - Hugo Grotius (pensionary of Rotterdam) and Rambout Hogerbeets (pensionary of Leiden), and purged their supporters from government.

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) was an important legal theorist, who laid the foundation for modern international law in his classic work, De Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of war and peace). He also wrote a rhyming defense of the fundamentals of Christianity (On the truth of the Christian religion) that was translated into many languages and reprinted in hundreds of editions. His Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Seas) argued the Dutch case for the right to fish herring wherever they swam.

	Prince Maurits took advantage of his coup to enhance the power of the stadholder and restrict Holland's influence. He purged Arminians from city councils and packed government and the militias with Counter-Remonstrants who supported his policies. Maurits (and his heirs) tried to ensure that subsequent pensioners of Holland would be nonentities, incapable of opposing Orangist ambitions.
	May 1619 - the Synod of Dort condemned the Remonstrants as heretics. About 200 Remonstrant ministers were expelled from their posts and many of the chief Arminians were forced into exile. The churches where Arminian congregations had worshipped were repossessed by the orthodox Calvinists.
	Oldenbarnevelt, Grotius and Hogerbeets were tried for treason and found guilty, May 1619. Oldenbarnevelt was executed while Grotius and Hogerbeets were sentenced to life imprisonment. Grotius escaped (1621) and fled to the Spanish Netherlands and then to Paris. (The attacks on Remonstrants later eased, and they were allowed to worship in their own churches. In 1632, they created an Arminian academy in Amsterdam, whose professors included Philip van Limborch, a distinguished advocate of toleration and great friend of John Locke. Arminian beliefs were common among intellectuals, many of whom were also Cartesians, and amongst the ruling classes, but they remained a small minority of the Dutch population).

	The "Calvinist Revolution" of Prince Maurits also had international implications. Frederick V of the Palatinate - defeated in the Battle of the White Mountain (1619) by resurgent Austrian Hapsburg Catholicism - looked to the Dutch for help, and Maurits - deeply suspicious of Spanish Hapsburg Catholicism - was inclined to help. The disinclination of some provinces to resume warfare was overcome by Spain's unreasonable demands, and the truce was not renewed in 1621.
	The war against Spain got off to a bad start. The worst blow was the Spanish capture of Breda (1625) - one month after the death of Maurits in April 1625.
	Maurits was succeeded by his half-brother Frederick Henry (Frederik Hendrik). Frederick Henry was ambitious and wanted to increase the stadholder's power; he also aimed at reunifying the Low Countries by driving Spain from the southern provinces.

Contemporary map of s'Hertogenbosch

Funded by the proceeds of the seizing the Spanish fleet, Frederick Henry besieged and captured a number of towns in the Spanish Netherlands - ‘s-Hertogenbosch 1629, Maastricht 1632, Breda 1637. He was not able to gain Antwerp - the commercial center of the south.

Frederick Henry obtained French help by promising them the right to occupy much of the southern Netherlands, including Flanders, and in 1635 the French and Dutch launched a joint assault on Spanish strongholds.

The Æmilia - Tromp's flagship

October 1639 - The Dutch fleet commanded by Martin Tromp won an important victory over the Spanish at The Battle of the Downs. The Spaniards were sheltering in English territorial waters, but that didn't bother the Dutch. The Spanish lost 43 ships and 6,000 men.
The battle was important because it meant that the Spanish - unable to send troops down the Rhine to Northwest Europe since the fall of Breisach - could not send them by sea either.

	Frederick Henry made another important alliance. In 1641, his son William married Mary, daughter of Charles I, King of England. This union led to a long and close relationship between the Houses of Stuart and Orange.
	According to the alliance of 1635 (renewed 1644) the French were not to make peace without the Dutch nor vice versa. But French victories were making the Dutch more fearful of the French than of the increasingly feeble Spanish. A growing Dutch peace movement in the 1640's finally overrode Orangist hawkish objections and concluded peace with Spain at Münster (January 1648).

Princess Mary Stuart and Prince William of Orange.
Anthony van Dyck (1641)

Frederick Henry died in 1647 and was succeeded by William II - aged only twenty. William did all he could to oppose peace with Spain and, when it went ahead despite this, he plotted to resume it.
[In the portrait, William is only sixteen]

	William took a hard line on the treatment of Roman Catholics in those parts of the Southern Netherlands recently conquered. These areas were called the Generality, because they were ruled by all seven provinces jointly. Holland wanted a high degree of toleration for Catholics to win them over and encourage those still under Spanish rule to revolt. But William II - supported by Counter-Remonstrants insisted that Catholics be excluded from all office.
	In June 1650, Holland voted to disband much of the army supported by them. With support from the States General (which objected to Holland's domineering actions), William II ordered his army to besiege Amsterdam, and arrested six of Holland's leading politicians.
	Amsterdam was forced to acquiesce in the coup, but did all it could to undermine William II's attempts to resume the war.
	William II did not have long in power; he died suddenly of smallpox 6 November 1650. Holland rapidly regained influence.
	William's wife, Mary was eight month's pregnant with his son and heir, William III - but for now the Calvinist Orangist hawks were leaderless.