28 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



of all herring.* The levying of this tax was deferred 

 to William of Orange, appointed Stadtholder, or Lord 

 Lieutenant, of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht, when King 

 Philip left the country after the peace of Cateau Cambresis, 

 in the spring of 1559. If the youthful Lord Lieutenant 

 ever levied this tithe at all, he certainly did so with 

 exemplary leniency. Upon taking charge of the Provinces' 

 affairs he found the tax considerably in arrear, as appears 

 from a resolution of the States of Holland dated June 6th, 

 1559,1 by which they begged to know the herring fishery's 

 returns for the years 1553 and 1557, in order to determine 

 the amount due as tithe for the said years. The Prince 

 answered their request by a prayer to suspend the recover- 

 ing of the tax till his Highness's return from France, and 

 it was still due in 1561,^ nor have I found any positive 

 evidence of its having ever been recovered at all. 



A very different method of drawing money out of the 

 fisheries was pursued by the Spanish governors. The 

 Duke of Alva, who was sent to the Netherlands in 1567 

 with orders to put down heresy and generally break the 

 country to the iron Spanish rule, first obtained a loan of 

 28,000 fl. from the States in 157^5 by a menace of with- 

 drawing the fishermen's convoy if the money were not 

 forthcoming. The exaction was the worse, as the ineffi- 

 ciency of Government convoying ships was- as bitterly 

 complained of about this time as twenty years before, and 

 the Commissioners of the herring fishery, of whom more 

 anon, were obliged to equip men-of-war for their safety at 



* Wagenaar, Vad. Hist. v. p. 386, mentions this tax to have been 

 first exacted in 1553 ; but is not at all sure about the matter, and 

 abstains from giving particulars. 



| Res. Holland, 1559, p. 289. 



Ibid. 1561, p. 483. Ibid. 1571, p. 569. 



