iSi A. D. 1578. 



England and the German Hanfe towns, the masrnanimoiis nueen be- 

 ing firmly determined never to yield to their unreulona'^^l- aemands. 



According to Hakluyt, the Englifh Rudia company this year com- 

 plained of the Hollanders for trading to Kola, a port in Ruffian Lap- 

 land, where it feems there was fo great a trade for fifli oil and falmon, 

 that the company's fliips fometimes brought home 10,000 of thofe fifh. 



1579. — Though, as we have feen under the year 1561, the citizens 

 of Hamburgh had fmarted for their pretenfion to a fovereignty on the 

 river Elbe, yet they ftill kept up the fame romantic claim. This pro- 

 voked Frederic 11 king of Denmark to forbid them all his ports, as he 

 had formerly done ; which prohibition was found to be fo prejudicial 

 to their interefts, that in order to be relieved from it they were obliged 

 to pay that prince 400,000 livres in five years time. 



The prince of Orange, confidering the emulation among the great 

 men, and the difference of religion in the feveral provinces, which 

 could hardly ever be reconciled, and being defirous to fecure himfelf, 

 and to eftabliih, as far as poffible, the proteftant religion, procured the 

 Hates of Guelderland, Holland, Zealand, Frifeland, and Utrecht, to meet 

 at Utrecht in this year ; when they mutually and folemnly ftipulated to 

 defend one another, as one joint body, and with united confent to ad- 

 vife of peace, war, raxes, &c. and akb to fupport liberty of confcience. 

 Overyflel and Groningen were foon after admitted into the confederacy, 

 and completed the number of the Seven united provinces, which 

 compofed the mofl potent republic the world had feen fince that of old 

 Rome, and of the greateft commerce and maritime power that (as a re- 

 public) ever was on earth : For that fo fmall a ftate ihould, betwixt this 

 year 1579 and the year 1609, not only preferve its independence againft 

 the mightieft potentate in Europe, but likewife get footing in Flanders, 

 by mailering the ftrong and imiportant port and town of Sluyce, with 

 Hulfl, &c. ruin the trade of the mofl famous city of Antwerp, conquer 

 the flrong forts of Bergen-op-zoom, Breda, and fundry other places on 

 the Meufe and Rhine, &c. alfo attack and annoy fo great a monarch 

 in his own ports at home, and maugre all the va'd expenfe of fuch 

 great exploits, grow rich and opulent, as well as potent, will perhaps 

 fcarcely obtain credit in another century : but with us it ferves only to 

 {hew the immenle effed-s of an univerfally extended commerce, and in- 

 defatigable induftry, joined to unparalleled parfimony and economy ! 

 Soon after this famous period, the induftrious and parHmonious traders 

 of thofe united provinces pufhed into a confiderable fhare of that com- 

 merce to feveral parts of Europe which till then England had folely en- 

 joyed. Yet the great and happy accellion of the fugitive Walloons to 

 England about the fame time, v/hereby the old Englifli drapery was fo 

 much improved, and fundry new and j^rofitable manuficlnres intro- 

 duced, did movQ than counterbalance the lofs of ibme part of the Eng- 



