773 



WITT, DB, JOHN AND CORNELIUS. 



WITT, DE, JOHN AND CORNELIUS. 



776 



of the republic where the fleet could be refitted. The pilots refused 

 to take upon them tbo responsibility of navigating the ships from the 

 Texel to Antwerp, by a course which would secure them from the 

 attacks of the English, and yet be free from the danger of stranding 

 on the shallows. De "Witt repaired on board the fleet ; undertook the 

 responsibility from which skilled professional men shrunk ; conveyed 

 the fleet in safety to Antwerp ; whence, under his energetic super- 

 intendence, it again took the sea in fighting trim in an incredibly short 

 space of time. Louis now declared in favour of Holland, and osten- 

 sibly issued orders to his fleet to join that of the United Provinces. 

 No junction however took place, and after two more well contested 

 battles between the naval forces of Holland and England, a peace was 

 concluded at Breda, by a treaty, to which Denmark and France became 

 parties, between the belligerents, on the 30th of July 1667. 



De Witt endeavoured after the peace to concentrate his attention 

 upon the internal organisation of the republic. The perpetual edict 

 and the financial resolutions above alluded to were the first fruits 

 of this determination. But the conduct of the French king soon inter- 

 rupted these labours by drawing his attention to foreign affairs. Louis 

 invaded the Spanish Netherlands in 1667, under the pretext that they 

 fell by right to his queen on the death of her father the king of Spain. 

 Turenne took one fortification after another with his usual rapidity, 

 and was advancing towards Brussels, when the Marquis de Castel- 

 llodrigo represented to the states-general, that if France were allowed 

 to conquer the Netherlands there would remain no barrier between it 

 and the United Provinces. These representations were backed by 

 those of Temple, sent by the English ministry to propose an alliance 

 between Holland, England, and Sweden, with a view to oblige France 

 and Spain to conclude a peace. This measure coincided with the 

 policy of De Witt, who felt the danger of irritating France, and the 

 equal danger of remaining a passive witness of its -aggressions. The 

 triple alliance was resolved upon on the 23rd of January, 1668 ; signed 

 on the 7th of February, and ratified on the 25th of April. At the 

 same time tho forces of the republic were secretly augmented by 

 De Witt : 25,000 infantry were raised, and quartered in the frontier 

 garrisons, and a fleet of forty vessels put in commission. These 

 ncgociations were accelerated by the progress of the French arms in 

 Franche Comte 1 . The treaty disposed France to listen to overtures of 

 peace, as the invasion of Franche Comte" disposed the court of Spain ; 

 and under the direction of De Witt and Temple the peace of Aix-la- 

 Chapelle was signed on the 2nd of May. Louis dissembled his anger 

 at the part taken by the United Provinces in these negociations till ail 

 opportunity of avenging himself should offer. 



In 1670 Charles II. was persuaded by the intrigues of the French 

 court to promise that England would withdraw from the triple 

 alliance. In 1671 the bishop of Miinster and several Roman Catholic 

 princes of the Empire entered into a league with France for the pur- 

 pose of reconquering some frontier towns which they alleged had been 

 unjustly and forcibly torn from the Empire by Holland. In Sweden 

 the council of regency appointed to conduct the affairs of state during 

 the minority of Charles XI. was also detached from -the interests of 

 Holland. The inaction of De Witt while these intrigues were carrying 

 on all around him would appear unaccountable but for two circum- 

 stances which contributed to paralyse him. The first was the anar- 

 chical constitution of the republic, in which there was no central 

 authority, every province and almost every town retaining its sove- 

 reignty. To raise money or troops the consent of an immense 

 number of petty councils was necessary, composed of men whom 

 immediate and visible danger alone could convince of the necessity of 

 making the slightest sacrifices. The other circumstance was the grow- 

 ing strength of the Orange party, to which various causes contributed : 

 popular fickleness, tired of an administration of twenty years' standing ; 

 the number of disappointed candidates for office which had accumu- 

 lated in the course of twenty years ; the inveterate malevolence of the 

 Calvinistic clergy against the party of which De Witt was the chief; 

 and the natural tendency of men to favour the pretensions of a house 

 of real historical greatness. To this combination of adverse influences 

 must the fact be in a great measure attributed, and when the frontiers 

 of Holland were simultaneously assailed by the forces of Louis XIV. 

 and the German princes, in the spring of 1672, the forts were held by 

 garrisons weak alike in numbers and in the inexperience and want of 

 discipline of the raw levies which composed them. 



The partisans of the House of Orange seized the opportunity of 

 national alarm and confusion to clamour for the repeal of the per- 

 petual edict. De Witt and his friends were still strong enough to 

 refuse this demand, but not to prevent the Prince of Orange from 

 being nominated captain and admiral-general on the 25th of February 

 1672. A precaution taken to guard against any advantage William 

 might be inclined to take of his military power rather precipitated 

 than delayed the downfall of De Witt. Eight deputies were selected 

 from among the members of the states-general to act as council to the 

 military and naval commanders : Cornelius de Witt, who was one of 

 them, was sent on board the fleet of De Ruyter ; the other seven were 

 ordered to accompany Prince William. As usual, a multiplicity of 

 councils only embarrassed the commander-in-chief, and added to the 

 number of reverses which enabled De Witt's enemies to raise a storm 

 of public indignation against him. 



France and England declared war against Holland on the 7th of 



April ; tho elector of Cologne and the bishop of Miinster a month 

 later. In the course of two months the French and German armies 

 had occupied the provinces of Gueldre, Over-Yssel, and Utrecht, 

 taken fifty cities, and made upwards of 24,000 prisoners. At sea the 

 Dutch were less unfortunate, but the utmost efforts of De Ruyter and 

 his bravo companions in arms were unable to achieve more than a 

 drawn battle in the encounter with the Duke of York off Solbay. The 

 advance-guard of the French army was within five leagues of Amster- 

 dam. The cities of Holland and Brabant, to avoid surrendering, were 

 obliged to break the dykes and inundate the surrounding country. 

 The clamour for the rescinding of the perpetual edict was successfully 

 renewed at this disastrous crisis. The revocation of the edict was 

 signed by the magistrates of the principal towns of Holland and West 

 Friesland. 



In the beginning of July Louis returned to Paris ; Turenne was 

 obliged to draw towards the German frontier to meet succours for 

 Holland which were advancing under the elector of Brandenburg ; and 

 the Duke of Luxembourg was left in the conquered provinces with a 

 force no more than sufficient to hold the Prince of Orange in check. 

 The temporary relief from all-engrossing fear thus afforded to the 

 inhabitants of the unsubdued provinces was employed by the enemies 

 of De Witt in stimulating the populace against him by all kinds of 

 malevolent misrepresentations. His brother was arrested on a false 

 accusation, brought to the Hague, and on the 24th of July tortured 

 and sentenced to perpetual exile. He himself was attacked by assas- 

 sins in the streets of the same city, and dangerously wounded. After 

 the condemnation of Cornelius, John visited him in prison; a mob 

 assembled, uttering violent threats against both brothers. Three 

 companies of cavalry, under Count Tilly, in garrison at the Hague, 

 put in motion by their officers to rescue the De Witts, were ordered to 

 move in another direction by the States of Holland, under the pretext 

 that a body of insurgent peasants were advancing against the town. 

 The brothers thus left without protection were savagely murdered, 

 and their bodies attached to a gibbet After the mob had dispersed, 

 the bodies were decently entombed by order of the states-general ; a 

 faint effort was made to preserve appearances by ordering inquiry to 

 be made after the murderers ; and medals were allowed to be struck 

 in honour of the murdered. 



John de Witt combined an active enterprising disposition with solid 

 judgment; he was a persuasive orator and a dexterous negociator. Ho 

 was bold in the hour of danger and patient under protracted reverses. 

 For the space of twenty years he frustrated the hostility of all the 

 great surrounding monarchies against the small and ill-organised re- 

 public at the head of which he stood. The honour of first introducing 

 regularity into its finances, and in great part the honour of checking 

 the progress of Louis XIV. by the triple alliance and the peace of Aix- 

 la-Chapelle, belongs to him. That he should have fallen under the 

 trying circumstances which attended the close of his career is less to 

 be wondered at than that he should so long have kept head against 

 the anarchy of the Seven United Provinces. The truest mirror of his 

 character is to be found in his works the ' Me"mouvs de Jean de Witt, 

 Grand Pensiouuaire. d'Hollande,' published at the Hague in Dutch, in 

 1667; in French, in 1709; and the 'Letters et Negociations entre 

 Jean de Witt et les Ple"nipotentiaires des Provinces Unies aux Cours 

 de France, &c. depuis 1'an 1652 jusqu'a 1669,' Dutch at Amsterdam, 

 in 1725 ; French, in 1728. A 'Life' of the brothers was published at 

 Utrecht in 1709, by Madame Zouteland. 



CORNELIUS DE WITT was born at Dordrecht on the 23rd of June 

 1623. He is said to have served several years in the fleet of the 

 United Provinces in his early youth. His later career however was 

 essentially that of a civilian. On the overthrow of the Orange party in 

 1650 he was appointed burgomaster of his native town and elected 

 deputy to the States of Holland and West Friesland. Soon after he 

 was chosen inspector of dykes in the district of Putten. Ostensibly 

 he held no higher office during the greater part of his brother's admi- 

 nistration; but the confidence which his firmness, probity, business 

 talent, and sound sense acquired from all rendered him in reality the 

 most efficient supporter of his brother's power. As has been men- 

 tioned in the preceding sketch, he held a political appointment on 

 board the fleet of De Ruyter in 1672; and in 1667 he had filled a 

 similar post. On both occasions he distinguished himself by his 

 bravery in action. After the battle of Solbay he was obliged to leave 

 the fleet by a violent malady, and retired to Dordrecht. Before his 

 arrival the other magistrates had signed the revocation of the per- 

 petual edict. A tumultous crowd intruded itself into his sick room, 

 demanding his signature to the document. With great difficulty his 

 friends persuaded him to comply ; but he added the initials V. C. (vi 

 coactus) to his name ; and refusing to erase them, the mob was only 

 pacified by one of his attendants doing it unknown to him. He was 

 soon after arrested on a false accusation of conspiring to poison the 

 Prince of Orange, conveyed to the Hague, and put to the torture. 

 While on the rack he is said to have repeated Horace's ode, which 

 begins " Justum et tenacem propositi virum." On the 24th of July he 

 was condemned to perpetual exile, and his subsequent fate has already 

 been narrated. 



The authorities for the incidents of the life of Cornelius de Witt are 

 the same mentioned above in the sketch of his brother's career. 

 Some vjduable materials are also to be found for tho history of both 



