It seemed the very mockery of Fate that, almost at the very instant when after two years’ painful negotiation a truce had been made, the signal for universal discord should be sounded.  One day in the early summer of 1609, Henry IV. came to the Royal Arsenal, the residence of Sully, accompanied by Zamet and another of his intimate companions.  He asked for the Duke and was told that he was busy in his study.  “Of course,” said the King, turning to his followers, “I dare say you expected to be told that he was out shooting, or with the ladies, or at the barber’s.  But who works like Sully?  Tell him,” he said, “to come to the balcony in his garden, where he and I are not accustomed to be silent.”

As soon as Sully appeared, the King observed:  “Well; here the Duke of Cleve is dead, and has left everybody his heir.”

It was true enough, and the inheritance was of vital importance to the world.

It was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps into which Christendom was divided.  The Duchies of Cleve, Berg, and Julich, and the Counties and Lordships of Mark, Ravensberg, and Ravenstein, formed a triangle, political and geographical, closely wedged between Catholicism and Protestantism, and between France, the United Provinces, Belgium, and Germany.  Should it fall into Catholic hands, the Netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all sides, with the House of Austria governing the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt.  It was vital to them to exclude the Empire from the great historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of jealous powers and rival creeds.

Should it fall into heretic hands, the States were vastly strengthened, the Archduke Albert isolated and cut off from the protection of Spain and of the Empire.  France, although Catholic, was the ally of Holland and the secret but well known enemy of the House of Austria.  It was inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties and should find himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of Europe.

In this emergency he relied upon himself and on two men besides, Maximilian de Bethune and John of Barneveld.  The conference between the King and Sully and between both and Francis Aerssens, ambassador of the States, were of almost daily occurrence.  The minute details given in the adroit diplomatist’s correspondence indicate at every stage the extreme deference paid by Henry to the opinion of Holland’s Advocate and the confidence reposed by him in the resources and the courage of the Republic.

All the world was claiming the heritage of the duchies.