FOOTNOTES: 

[16] Ep. 490. p. 895.

[17] Borremansius.  Crenius Anim.  Hist. t. 1. p. 20.  Du Maurier.

[18] Ep. 490, p. 895.

[19] Ep. 500. p. 884.

[20] Apol. c. 20.

[21] In natalem patris, p. 199.

[22] Hora ruit.

VII.  He came into the world precisely at that time when the affairs of the United Provinces were in the greatest disorder.  It was the year[23] that the duke of Anjou wanted to surprize Antwerp; and that the greatest lords, in despair of being able to resist the formidable power of the king of Spain, were seeking to obtain a pardon.  To add to their distress, William prince of Orange, the greatest support of the infant Republic, was murdered the year following, 1584, at Delft.  His talents, his experience, and his reputation were the principal resource of the Malcontents.  The confusion, in which he left affairs, grieved him so much, that his last words were, Lord, have pity on this poor people.  Every thing was prepared, when he died, for proclaiming him Count of Holland.  The provinces of Zealand and Utrecht did not oppose it:  only the cities of Amsterdam and Goude made some difficulty:  however, the thing was so far advanced, that the States of Holland sent a deputation to those two cities, to acquaint them, if they refused any longer to give their consent, the States would nevertheless consummate the affair.  The deputation had been gone a month, when the prince was assassinated on the tenth of July.

The States in this kind of anarchy requested Henry III. of France to receive them for his subjects; but the embarrassments the League gave him hindered his accepting their offer.  On his refusal they had recourse to Queen Elizabeth, who concluded a treaty with them, by which she engaged to furnish five thousand foot, and a thousand horse, under an English general, and to pay these troops during the war on condition of being reimbursed when it was over:  and it was stipulated that for security of the payment some towns, particularly Flushing in Zealand, and the Brille in Holland, should be put into her hands, to be restored to the States when the money was repaid.  The Queen of England at the same time published a manifesto, setting forth, that the alliance between the Kings of England and the Sovereigns of the Low Countries was not so much between their persons as between their respective States:  from whence she concluded that, without violating her alliance with the King of Spain, she might assist the people of the Low Countries oppressed by the Spaniards.

The Earl of Leicester was appointed to command the succours sent by the Queen to Holland.  The States, to express their gratitude to England, declared him Governor and Captain-General of the United Provinces.  No sooner did he see himself invested with this great power, than he began under-hand to form projects destructive of the liberty of the country he came to defend:  it has been said, he designed to make himself Sovereign of the Provinces of which he was only Governor.  He soon became odious to every one; and after a campaign, in which he performed no considerable exploit, returned to England to take measures for facilitating the execution of his ambitious designs.