It may be supposed that the results of Matelieff’s voyage were likely to influence the pending negotiations for peace.
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A sovereign remedy for
the disease of liberty
All the ministers and
great functionaries received presents
Because he had been
successful (hated)
But the habit of dissimulation
was inveterate
By turns, we all govern
and are governed
Contempt for treaties
however solemnly ratified
Despised those who were
grateful
Idiotic principle of
sumptuary legislation
Indulging them frequently
with oracular advice
Justified themselves
in a solemn consumption of time
Man who cannot dissemble
is unfit to reign
Men fought as if war
was the normal condition of humanity
Men who meant what they
said and said what they meant
Negotiated as if they
were all immortal
Philip of Macedon, who
considered no city impregnable
To negotiate was to
bribe right and left, and at every step
Unwise impatience for
peace
HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year’s Truce—1609
By John Lothrop Motley
History United Netherlands, Volume 81, 1608
CHAPTER L.
Movements of the Emperor Rudolph—Marquis Spinola’s reception at the Hague—Meeting of Spinola and Prince Maurice—Treaty of the Republic with the French Government—The Spanish commissioners before the States-General—Beginning of negotiations—Stormy discussions—Real object of Spain in the negotiations—Question of the India trade— Abandonment of the peace project—Negotiations for a truce— Prolongation of the armistice—Further delays—Treaty of the States with England—Proposals of the Spanish ambassadors to Henry of France and to James of England—Friar Neyen at the court of Spain— Spanish procrastination—Decision of Philip on the conditions of peace—Further conference at the Hague—Answer of the States-General to the proposals of the Spanish Government—General rupture.
Towards the close of the year 1607 a very feeble demonstration was made in the direction of the Dutch republic by the very feeble Emperor of Germany. Rudolph, awaking as it might be from a trance, or descending for a moment from his star-gazing tower and his astrological pursuits to observe the movements of political spheres, suddenly discovered that the Netherlands were no longer revolving in their preordained orbit. Those provinces had been supposed to form part of one great system, deriving light and heat from the central imperial sun. It was time therefore to put an end to these perturbations. The emperor accordingly, as if he had not enough on his hands at that precise moment with the Hungarians, Transylvanians, Bohemian protestants, his brother Matthias and the Grand Turk, addressed a letter to the States of Holland, Zeeland, and the provinces confederated with them.