The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1580-82 | Page 3

long ever
floated in his wake, and stared him in the face whenever he looked over
his vessel's side. A gambler, a profligate, a pirate, he had yet rendered
service to the cause of freedom, and his name--sullying the purer and

nobler ones of other founders of the commonwealth--"is enrolled in the
capitol."
Count Philip Hohenlo, upon whom now, devolved the, entire
responsibility of the Groningen siege and of the Friesland operations,
was only a few degrees superior to this northern corsair. A noble of
high degree, nearly connected with the Nassau family, sprung of the
best blood in Germany, handsome and dignified in appearance, he was,
in reality only a debauchee and a drunkard. Personal bravery was his
main qualification for a general; a virtue which he shared with many of
his meanest soldiers. He had never learned the art of war, nor had he
the least ambition to acquire it. Devoted to his pleasures, he depraved
those under his command, and injured the cause for which he was
contending. Nothing but defeat and disgrace were expected by the purer
patriots from such guidance. "The benediction of God," wrote Albada,
"cannot be hoped for under this chieftain, who by life and manners is
fitter to drive swine than to govern pious and honorable men."
The event justified the prophecy. After a few trifling operations before
Groningen, Hohenlo was summoned to the neighbourhood of
Coewerden, by the reported arrival of Martin Schenck, at the head of a
considerable force. On the 15th of June, the Count marched all night
and a part of the follow morning, in search of the enemy. He came up
with them upon Hardenberg Heath, in a broiling summer forenoon. His
men were jaded by the forced march, overcame with the heat,
tormented with thirst, and unable to procure even a drop of water. The
royalists were fresh so that the result of the contest was easily to be
foreseen. Hohenlo's army was annihilated in an hour's time, the whole
population fled out of Coewerden, the siege of Groningen was raised;
Renneberg was set free to resume his operations on a larger scale, and
the fate of all the north- eastern provinces was once more swinging in
the wind. The boors of Drenthe and Friesland rose again. They had
already mustered in the field at an earlier season of the year, in
considerable force. Calling themselves "the desperates," and bearing on
their standard an eggshell with the yolk running out--to indicate that,
having lost the meat they were yet ready to fight for the shell--they had
swept through the open country, pillaging and burning. Hohenlo had
defeated them in two enchanters, slain a large number of their forces,
and reduced them for a time to tranquillity. His late overthrow once

more set them loose. Renneberg, always apt to be over-elated in
prosperity, as he was unduly dejected in adversity, now assumed all the
airs of a conqueror. He had hardly eight thousand men under his orders,
but his strength lay in the weakness of his adversaries. A small war
now succeeded, with small generals, small armies, small campaigns,
small sieges. For the time, the Prince of Orange was even obliged to
content himself with such a general as Hohenlo. As usual, he was
almost alone. "Donec eris felix," said he, emphatically--
"multos numerabis amicos, Tempera cum erunt nubila, nullus erit,"
and he was this summer doomed to a still harder deprivation by the
final departure of his brother John from the Netherlands.
The Count had been wearied out by petty miseries. His stadholderate of
Gelderland had overwhelmed him with annoyance, for throughout the
north- eastern provinces there was neither system nor subordination.
The magistrates could exercise no authority over an army which they
did not pay, or a people whom they did not protect. There were endless
quarrels between the various boards of municipal and provincial
government-- particularly concerning contributions and expenditures.
[When the extraordinary generosity of the Count himself; and the
altogether unexampled sacrifices of the Prince are taken into account, it
may well be supposed that the patience of the brothers would be sorely
tried by the parsimony of the states. It appears by a document laid
before the states-general in the winter of 1580- 1581, that the Count
had himself advanced to Orange 570,000 florins in the cause. The total
of money spent by the Prince himself for the sake of Netherland liberty
was 2,200,000. These vast sums had been raised in various ways and
from various personages. His estates were deeply hypothecated, and his
creditors so troublesome, that, in his own language, he was unable to
attend properly to public affairs, so frequent and so threatening were
the applications made upon him for payment. Day by day he felt the
necessity advancing more closely