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HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce—1609
By John Lothrop Motley
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Volume 44
History United Netherlands, Volume 44, 1585-1586
The Earl of Leicester—His Triumphal Entrance into Holland—English
Spies about him—Importance of Holland to England—Spanish Schemes
for invading England—Letter of the Grand Commander—Perilous
Position of England—True Nature of the Contest—wealth and Strength
of the Provinces—Power of the Dutch and English People—Affection
of the Hollanders for the Queen—Secret Purposes of Leicester—
Wretched condition of English Troops—The Nassaus and Hohenlo—The
Earl's Opinion of them—Clerk and Killigrew—Interview with the
States Government General offered to the Earl—Discussions on the
Subject—The Earl accepts the Office—His Ambition and Mistakes—His
Installation at the Hague—Intimations of the Queen's Displeasure—
Deprecatory Letters of Leicester—Davison's Mission to England—
Queen's Anger and Jealousy—Her angry Letters to the Earl and the
States—Arrival of Davison—Stormy Interview with the Queen—The
second one is calmer—Queen's Wrath somewhat mitigated—Mission of
Heneago to the States—Shirley sent to England by the Earl—His
Interview with Elizabeth
At last the Earl of Leicester came. Embarking at Harwich, with a fleetof fifty ships, and attended "by the flower and chief gallants ofEngland"—the Lords Sheffield, Willoughby, North, Burroughs, Sir GervaseClifton, Sir William Russell, Sir Robert Sidney, and others among thenumber—the new lieutenant-general of the English forces in theNetherlands arrived on the 19th December, 1585, at Flushing.
His nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, and Count Maurice of Nassau, with a bodyof troops and a great procession of civil functionaries; were inreadiness to receive him, and to escort him to the lodgings prepared forhim.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was then fifty-four years of age.There are few personages in English history whose adventures, real orfictitious, have been made more familiar to the world than his have been,or whose individuality has been presented in more picturesque fashion, bychronicle, tragedy, or romance. Born in the same day of the month andhour of the day with the Queen, but two years before her birth, thesupposed synastry of their destinies might partly account, in that age ofastrological superstition, for the influence which he perpetuallyexerted. They had, moreover, been fellow-prisoners together, in thecommencement of the reign of Mary, and it is possible that he may havebeen the medium through which the indulgent expressions of Philip II.were conveyed to the Princess Elizabeth.
His grandfather, John Dudley, that "caterpillar of the commonwealth," wholost his head in the first year of Henry VIII. as a reward for thegrist which he brought to the mill of Henry VII.; his father, the mightyDuke of Northumberland, who rose out of the wreck of an obscure andruined family to almost regal power, only to perish, like hispredecessor, upon the scaffold, had bequeathed him nothing save rapacity,