But papers like these, important as they are, make but a slender portion of the material out of which a judgment concerning these grave events can be constructed.  I do not therefore offer an apology for the somewhat copious extracts which I have translated and given in these volumes from the correspondence of Barneveld and from other manuscripts of great value—­most of them in the Royal Archives of Holland and Belgium—­which are unknown to the public.

I have avoided as much as possible any dealings with the theological controversies so closely connected with the events which I have attempted to describe.  This work aims at being a political study.  The subject is full of lessons, examples, and warnings for the inhabitants of all free states.  Especially now that the republican system of government is undergoing a series of experiments with more or less success in one hemisphere—­while in our own land it is consolidated, powerful, and unchallenged—­will the conflicts between the spirits of national centralization and of provincial sovereignty, and the struggle between the church, the sword, and the magistracy for supremacy in a free commonwealth, as revealed in the first considerable republic of modern history, be found suggestive of deep reflection.

Those who look in this work for a history of the Synod of Dordtrecht will look in vain.  The Author has neither wish nor power to grapple with the mysteries and passions which at that epoch possessed so many souls.  The Assembly marks a political period.  Its political aspects have been anxiously examined, but beyond the ecclesiastical threshold there has been no attempt to penetrate.

It was necessary for my purpose to describe in some detail the relations of Henry iv. with the Dutch Republic during the last and most pregnant year of his life, which makes the first of the present history.  These relations are of European importance, and the materials for appreciating them are of unexpected richness, in the Dutch and Belgian Archives.

Especially the secret correspondence, now at the Hague, of that very able diplomatist Francis Aerssens with Barneveld during the years 1609, 1610, and 1611, together with many papers at Brussels, are full of vital importance.

They throw much light both on the vast designs which filled the brain of Henry at this fatal epoch and on his extraordinary infatuation for the young Princess of Conde by which they were traversed, and which was productive of such widespread political anal tragical results.  This episode forms a necessary portion of my theme, and has therefore been set forth from original sources.

I am under renewed obligations to my friend M. Gachard, the eminent publicist and archivist of Belgium, for his constant and friendly offices to me (which I have so often experienced before), while studying the documents under his charge relating to this epoch; especially the secret correspondence of Archduke Albert with Philip iii, and his ministers, and with Pecquius, the Archduke’s agent at Paris.