In the earlier conferences the envoys of the Archduke and of the Elector of Cologne were left out, but they were informed daily of each step in the negotiation.  The most important point at starting was thought to be to get rid of the ‘Condominium.’  There could be no harmony nor peace in joint possession.  The whole territory should be cut provisionally in halves, and each possessory prince rule exclusively within the portion assigned to him.  There might also be an exchange of domain between the two every six months.  As for Wesel and Julich, they could remain respectively in the hands then holding them, or the fortifications of Julich might be dismantled and Wesel restored to the status quo.  The latter alternative would have best suited the States, who were growing daily more irritated at seeing Wesel, that Protestant stronghold, with an exclusively Calvinistic population, in the hands of Catholics.

The Spanish ambassador at Brussels remonstrated, however, at the thought of restoring his precious conquest, obtained without loss of time, money, or blood, into the hands of heretics, at least before consultation with the government at Madrid and without full consent of the King.

“How important to your Majesty’s affairs in Flanders,” wrote Guadaleste to Philip, “is the acquisition of Wesel may be seen by the manifest grief of your enemies.  They see with immense displeasure your royal ensigns planted on the most important place on the Rhine, and one which would become the chief military station for all the armies of Flanders to assemble in at any moment.

“As no acquisition could therefore be greater, so your Majesty should never be deprived of it without thorough consideration of the case.  The Archduke fears, and so do his ministers, that if we refuse to restore Wesel, the United Provinces would break the truce.  For my part I believe, and there are many who agree with me, that they would on the contrary be more inclined to stand by the truce, hoping to obtain by negotiation that which it must be obvious to them they cannot hope to capture by force.  But let Wesel be at once restored.  Let that be done which is so much desired by the United Provinces and other great enemies and rivals of your Majesty, and what security will there be that the same Provinces will not again attempt the same invasion?  Is not the example of Julich fresh?  And how much more important is Wesel!  Julich was after all not situate on their frontiers, while Wesel lies at their principal gates.  Your Majesty now sees the good and upright intentions of those Provinces and their friends.  They have made a settlement between Brandenburg and Neuburg, not in order to breed concord but confusion between those two, not tranquillity for the country, but greater turbulence than ever before.  Nor have they done this with any other thought than that the United Provinces might find new opportunities to derive the same profit from fresh tumults as they have already done so shamelessly from those which are past.  After all I don’t say that Wesel should never be restored, if circumstances require it, and if your Majesty, approving the Treaty of Xanten, should sanction the measure.  But such a result should be reached only after full consultation with your Majesty, to whose glorious military exploits these splendid results are chiefly owing.”