Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands

59 About the present condition of government in the Netherlands, 1583 ¹

This pamphlet depicts the situation in the Netherlands in the latter half of 1583, when central authority was virtually powerless. The pamphlet was written after the fall of Zutphen at the end of September, which is mentioned.

Considering our inconstancy it is not surprising that we have changed our government many times. In less than four years we have seen the Archduke Matthias,² the Council of State, the Nearer Union,³ the Council of the Land,⁴ the duke of Anjou. And now a new council is about to be set up. Truly we cannot understand why, unless some mischief-makers are seeking their own profit and deceive the authorities by pretending that change from one government to another is an improvement. Yet they know perfectly well that everywhere these and similar changes have been

1 Van den staet der tegenwoerdiger Nederlandtsche regierung (Knuttel, no. 652).

2 See Document 28.

3 See the treaty of the Union of Utrecht, Document 37.

4 See the edict of the States General of 26 July 1581, Document 49.

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disastrous for the provinces. This is why they are looked on as a punishment from God. And when we consider our past experiences and what has happened recently, we find that all our misfortunes were accompanied by a change of government, and all changes of government by misfortunes. Recently we lost the town of Zutphen,⁵ while the States General were moving from place to place⁶ and the discussions spun out from month to month only to bring about a change of government and a new council. Is it not a great pity that we thus promote the enemy's cause and bring on ourselves so much damage that it looks as if we had firmly sworn to surrender these provinces to him? Is it not because of this that we are the laughing-stock of all the nations in the world and are mockingly asked where we think we could find a prince, council or government which might please us for as long as three months?

We earnestly warn all good inhabitants of the country that, if we were to set up a new council every month provided with the most satisfactory and beneficial instruction we can think of, and held in the same esteem as the previous councils, matters would nevertheless finally become a thousand times worse than before. For if we intend to hold the authorities and the council beside them in the esteem due to them and to obey them, what is the point of this lamentable practice of constantly setting up new councils? On the other hand, if we do not wish to hold the authorities in esteem, no council in the world can be of any use to us.

We do not in any way suggest that the common people have damaged the authority of the council. On the contrary, we must regretfully and sadly state that the council's authority was undermined by precisely those men who ought to have strengthened it. And this is the main point to which we must diligently pay attention in this government. For if we can remedy this (and it depends only on our willingness) then we will soon see our welfare and our prosperity daily increase. If not, we shall have to get used to being bowed down beneath the yoke of the Spanish tyranny from now on. For even if Providence itself would wish to save us, it would be in vain. Therefore we pray all burghers, as the only ones who can move the States of their provinces by timely and practical petitions, and the States themselves as the only ones whom God has given power and authority, each to remedy this situation in their own province and seriously take to heart what we have to say on this subject.

5 Zutphen was taken by the Spaniards on 22 September 1583.

6 The States General had been convoked first at Middelburg in the summer of 1583, and had then moved to Dordrecht. So, like the prince of Orange, they had left Antwerp for good.

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Firstly we think it is a well-known fact that the high or (as it is now called) sovereign authority is in the hands of the States of each of our provinces. For no one among them can command the others, nor is any one province directly subject to an overlord. Each province has its own States and its own ordinary public revenue. But this war has brought them together in a common union, which obliges them to help each other by word and deed, with their lives and property. This union has formed a community which manifests itself when the envoys of the States of each province meet at an appointed place. This is called the States General, not because they represent the States of each province in particular, but because they represent the community of the general union, that is to say, only what is common to them. For that reason their authority does not go beyond what was agreed upon in the union. And just as it would be unreasonable if any one province usurped control over the affairs of the general union, so it would be equally unreasonable if the States General interfered in the ordinary rule of the States of each province. Nay what is more, when the States General have provided the money necessary for waging war and have elected an able leader and a good council, they should withdraw and leave matters to the competent authorities. But the States General must act again when it is necessary to take further decisions about how to deal with an escalation in the war, or the need to raise more money, about whether or not to keep the commander-in-chief or the council, about appointing a new lord, concluding peace, alienating land, changing religion and the coinage or finally calling to account those to whom they have entrusted government. If they interfere any further, they assume the duties of their delegates, and this is in two respects wrong. In the first place, sovereign power should only be concerned with sovereign matters, and secondly state-affairs should only be dealt with by people appointed to do so and not by those who appointed them. This is of vital importance; the most powerful and famous empires have been brought down because this maxim was not heeded. The reason is that no government can exist without authority and no authority without fulfilling the duties of the office to which it has been appointed. If the person appointed to an office is by order of the men who appointed him prevented from accomplishing his duties, authority breaks down and the whole government is thrown into confusion. But the most fearful and fatal defect is not so much that the States General have usurped control over affairs which they had entrusted to their appointed councillors, for this could to some extent be endured. It is rather that each of the individual provinces has successively usurped control over affairs, which should be decided upon

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by the States General and their councillors appointed for this purpose. This is why things go so badly and why we are in such great danger that it is a wondrous miracle of God that our cunning enemies did not crush us long ago.

It is plain that all the money voted for the protection of the united provinces by virtue of the common union is no longer the property of any one province, though it was levied there, but of the States General. It should be used in the States General's name by the councillors in charge, firstly for the monthly pay of the garrisons, secondly for financing the equipment needed for the men-of-war, thirdly for maintaining the field army and finally for incidental expenses. Have not most of the provinces, we ask, followed the bad example of some of their number and used this federal income as if it were their own instead of belonging to the whole union? We ask the council itself (without whose orders this money should not be spent) if it knows how much money each province has brought in and how much each province owes? And if it has ever received that money at the correct time or has received it other than piecemeal? It will have to confess that this is not so, and that miserable confusion has characterised the two years it has been ruling the provinces, and that it has had to issue supplications instead of orders.⁷

Nevertheless in our opinion it is not the provinces that should be blamed the most for this abuse; they have simply not considered the matter deeply enough. It is to be feared that the devil, the enemy of all unity, has enough evil instruments in each province to cunningly pervert good advice by putting forward what seems better; this can be done most easily in political and religious matters. For assuming (which our gracious God forbid) that in some provinces there are people who are secretly favourably disposed towards the enemy, or who out of self-interest are trying to change our Netherlandish government so that the highest authority would be shifted to places where they themselves possess the greatest respect, credit and power, these people might argue that it would be impossible for them to carry out their plans if the commonwealth of the general union were powerful and unimpaired and thus they must use devious means to undermine this commonwealth and the council set up to maintain it. This they could do very easily and without being noticed if the council were to fall out of favour with the people - a situation which they would soon succeed in creating if they could deprive the council of all

7 In the territory of the Union of Utrecht an executive council was still in operation. The system of federal taxation developed in article v of the treaty was never put into execution.

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finances. To achieve this they must impress upon the provinces that it is to them that the money and the convoys⁸ belong, that they must follow the example of their neighbours and inquire whether these do as much as they do themselves, and why one province should be obliged to bring its money in more readily than another. These are the sort of futile questions the common people like to hear and the sort of criticism which they enjoy. And whatever disaster may befall the country in the meantime (for it is impossible to govern without money), all the blame can then be laid on the council and it can be slandered, as if it did not know how to fulfil its duties. Thus these people hope that the council will finally be dismissed or, compelled by the resistance to it and by its lack of money, will hand in its resignation.

8 Convoy money was paid for by trading-ships and used for the fleet.