unity was the chief thing to be aimed at.  Leicester was equally unwise in the part he took in regard to religious matters.  Oldenbarneveldt, Paul Buys and the great majority of burgher-regents in Holland belonged to the moderate or, as it was called, the “libertine” party, to which William the Silent had adhered and whose principles of toleration he had strongly upheld.  Leicester, largely influenced by spite against Oldenbarneveldt and the Hollanders for their opposition to his edict about trade with the enemy and to his appointment of Sonoy, threw himself into the arms of the extreme Calvinists, who were at heart as fanatical persecutors as the Spanish inquisitors themselves.  These “precisian” zealots held, by the governor-general’s permission and under his protection, a synod at Dort, June, 1586, and endeavoured to organise the Reformed Church in accordance with their strict principles of exclusiveness.

By this series of maladroit acts Leicester had made himself so unpopular and distrusted in Holland that the Estates of that predominant province lost no opportunity of inflicting rebuffs upon him.  Stung by the opposition he met and weary of a thankless task, the governor determined at the end of November to pay a visit to England.  The Council of State was left in charge of the administration during his absence.

His departure had the very important effect of bringing the question of State-rights acutely to the front.  The dislike and distrust felt by the Hollanders towards the English governor-general was greatly increased by the treachery of Yorke and Stanley, who delivered the fort at Zutphen and the town of Deventer, with the defence of which they had been charged, into the hands of the Spaniards.  The town of Gelder and the fort at Wouw were likewise betrayed, and there can be small doubt that, had Parma at this time been able to take advantage of the dissensions in the ranks of his adversaries, he would have met with little effectual resistance to his arms.  His whole attention was, however, centred in preparations for the proposed invasion of England.  Leicester had no sooner left the country than the Estates of Holland, under the strong leadership of Oldenbarneveldt, took measures to assert their right to regulate their own affairs, independently of the Council of State.  A levy of troops was made (in the pay of the province of Holland), who were required to take an oath to the Provincial Estates and the stadholder.  To Maurice the title of “Prince” was given; and Sonoy in the North-Quarter and all the commanders of fortified places were compelled to place themselves under his orders.  The States-General, in which the influence of Holland and its chief representative, Oldenbarneveldt, was overpoweringly great, upheld the Provincial Estates in the measures they were taking.  As a result of their action the trade restrictions were practically repealed, the Council of State was reconstituted, and a strong indictment of Leicester’s conduct and administration was drawn up in the name of the States-General and forwarded to the absent governor in England.