By England's Aid
or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604),
by G.A. Henty
PREFACE.
MY DEAR LADS,
In my preface to By Pike and Dyke I promised in a future story to dealwith the closing events of the War of Independence in Holland. Theperiod over which that war extended was so long, and the incidents wereso numerous and varied, that it was impossible to include the wholewithin the limit of a single book. The former volume brought the storyof the struggle down to the death of the Prince of Orange and thecapture of Antwerp; the present gives the second phase of the war, whenEngland, who had long unofficially assisted Holland, threw herselfopenly into the struggle, and by her aid mainly contributed to thesuccessful issue of the war. In the first part of the struggle the scenelay wholly among the low lands and cities of Holland and Zeeland, andthe war was strictly a defensive one, waged against overpowering odds.After England threw herself into the strife it assumed far widerproportions, and the independence of the Netherlands was mainly securedby the defeat and destruction of the great Armada, by the capture ofCadiz and the fatal blow thereby struck at the mercantile prosperity ofSpain, and by the defeat of the Holy League by Henry of Navarre, aidedby English soldiers and English gold. For the facts connected with thedoings of Sir Francis Vere and the British contingent in Holland, I havedepended much upon the excellent work by Mr. Clement Markham entitledthe Fighting Veres. In this full justice is done to the great Englishgeneral and his followers, and it is conclusively shown that somestatements to the disparagement of Sir Francis Vere by Mr. Motley arefounded upon a misconception of the facts. Sir Francis Vere was, in thegeneral opinion of the time, one of the greatest commanders of the age,and more, perhaps, than any other man with the exception of the Princeof Orange contributed to the successful issue of the struggle of Hollandto throw off the yoke of Spain.
Yours sincerely,
G.A. HENTY
CHAPTER I
AN EXCURSION
"And we beseech Thee, O Lord, to give help and succour to Thy servantsthe people of Holland, and to deliver them from the cruelties andpersecutions of their wicked oppressors; and grant Thy blessing, we prayThee, upon the arms of our soldiers now embarking to aid them in theirextremity."
These were the words with which the Rev. John Vickars, rector ofHedingham, concluded the family prayers on the morning of December 6th,1585.
For twenty years the first portion of this prayer had been repeateddaily by him, as it had been in tens of thousands of English households;for since the people of the Netherlands first rose against the Spanishyoke the hearts of the Protestants of England had beat warmly in theircause, and they had by turns been moved to admiration at the indomitablecourage with which the Dutch struggled for independence against themight of the greatest power in Europe, and to horror and indignation atthe pitiless cruelty and wholesale massacres by which the Spaniards hadstriven to stamp out resistance.
From the first the people of England would gladly have joined in thefray, and made common cause with their co-religionists; but the queenand her counsellors had been restrained by weighty considerations fromembarking in such a struggle. At the commencement of the war the powerof Spain overshadowed all Europe. Her infantry were regarded asirresistible. Italy and Germany were virtually her dependencies, andEngland was but a petty power beside her. Since Agincourt was fought wehad taken but little part in wars on the Continen