The brain and the diplomatic skill of the great statesman would, however, have been of little avail without the aid of the military abilities of Maurice of Nassau.  Maurice was twenty years of age when Leicester left Holland.  He was a man very different from his father in opinions and in the character of his talents.  Maurice had nothing of his father’s tolerance in religious matters or his subtle skill in diplomacy.  He was a born soldier, but no politician, and had no wish to interfere in affairs of State.  He had the highest respect for Oldenbarneveldt and complete confidence in his capacity as a statesman, and he was at all times ready to use the executive powers, which he exercised by virtue of the numerous posts he was speedily called upon to fill, for the carrying out of Oldenbarneveldt’s policy; while the Advocate on his side found in the strong arm of the successful general the instrument that he needed for the maintenance of his supremacy in the conduct of the civil government.  Already in 1587 Maurice was Stadholder of Holland and Zeeland.  In 1588 he became Captain-General and Admiral-General of the Union with the control and supervision of all the armed forces of the Provinces by sea and by land.  The death of Nieuwenaar in the following year created a vacancy in the stadholderates of Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel.  Maurice was in each province elected as Nieuwenaar’s successor.  The Advocate therefore and the Prince, through the close accord which was for many years to subsist between them, gathered thus into their hands (except in Friesland) practically the entire administrative, executive and military powers of the United Provinces and by their harmonious co-operation with William Lewis, the wise and capable Stadholder of Friesland, were able to give something of real unity to a group of states, each claiming to be a sovereign entity, and to give them the outward semblance of a federal republic.  There was no “eminent head,” but the sovereignty in reality, if not in name, was vested during the period with which we have now to deal in this triumvirate.

Circumstances provided a favourable field for the display of the youthful Maurice’s military abilities.  In 1589 the assassination of Henry III placed Henry of Navarre on the throne of France.  The accession of the brilliant Huguenot leader led to civil war; and the Catholic opposition was encouraged and supported by Philip II, who regarded Henry IV as a menace and danger to the Spanish power.  Parma, therefore, whose active prosecution of the war against the rebel provinces had been so long hindered by having to hold his army in readiness for the projected invasion of England, found himself, after the failure and destruction of the Armada, in no better position for a campaign in the northern Netherlands.  Disappointment and false charges against him brought on a serious illness, and on his recovery he received orders to conduct an expedition into France.  William Lewis of Nassau