40 James Muilenburg 



On the twenty-fifth of April, 176 according to Avaux, the States 

 considered a resolution to recall Dykvelt, because they saw that 

 his stay in England was useless so long as Parliament did not 

 meet. But Dykvelt had been very active during the past weeks. 

 This activity aroused the suspicions of the Deputies. The nego- 

 tiations with James II had apparently secured for them the good- 

 will of the King, which was what they desired. What was the 

 use of prolonging the embassy? Moreover, Avaux saw that Dyk- 

 velt was employing most of his energies in a cause which struck at 

 France. 177 He used his influence with the Deputies against the 

 power of Orange, which was directing its fiercest and most con- 

 stant blows against his master, whose policy was the disturbing 

 factor in the balance of power in Europe. He pointed out again 

 and again that Dykvelt was mustering the Parliamentary forces 

 about the Prince of Orange, that he was allying himself with the 

 most factious elements in the island realm, and that all this was 

 done against the English King and the States General of Holland. 



Thus far, we have been introduced to the political situation with 

 which Dykvelt was to deal in England. We have seen that the 

 underlying meaning of the embassy lay in the shifting of the 

 balance of power in Europe. The Prince of Orange was dex- 

 terously uniting the forces of Europe against France and her 

 King. He felt, and felt profoundly, that he had come to the king- 

 dom of the world for such a time as this. He saw, as did also his 

 arch-antagonist, Louis XIV, that the struggle was to be fought, 

 not on the battlefields of the continent nor yet on the highways 

 of the seas in naval display; but it was to be fought in the court 

 and councils of their island neighbor England. Thither Dykvelt, 

 that consummate statesman, had been sent with special instruc- 

 tions from the national body of Deputies, and from the Prince. 



176 Avaux, April 25, 1687, p. 51 f. 



"On prit resolution dans les Etats de Hollande de rappeller le Sieur Dickfeld et 

 un des motifs qu'on en allegua, fut que puisqu'il n'y avait aucune apparence que le 

 Roi d'Angleterre assemblat sitot son Parlement, le sejour de Dickfeld en ce pays-la 

 etait inutile." 



177 Almost every letter he wrote his master repeats the danger of the Protestant 

 alliance and Dykvelt's negotiations with the Parliamentary leaders. 



124 



