Texts concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands

65 Thomas Wilkes' Remonstrance to the States General and the States of Holland, March 1587 ¹

After Leicester's return to England in November 1586 the States of Holland and the States General started to act counter to the power of the Council of State to which the governor general had delegated his authority. One of the English members of the Council, Thomas Wilkes, protested at these procedures in a memorandum in French, summing up various instances and ending with a discussion of the constitutional side of the matter.

...[you ought] at least to give a satisfactory answer with good legal arguments to justify your acts and procedures without alleging either the sovereignty which you have [on various occasions] claimed to possess or unfounded and frivolous reasons that are irrelevant to the matter and are based neither on the treaties and accords nor on your previous actions nor

1 Bor, Oorsprongk, ii, p. 921.

[p. 273]

on the instruction given to the Council of State. We expect from you arguments based on equity, law, reason and natural common sense. For in the absence of a legitimate prince the sovereignty belongs to the commonalty and not to you, gentlemen, who are only servants, ministers, and deputies of the commonalty and have commissions which are limited and restricted not only in time but also in subject matter. These are conditions as widely different from sovereignty as is the power of the subject from that of the prince or of the servant from that of the master, or, to express it more clearly, as heaven is from earth, for sovereignty is limited neither in power nor in time.² Still less do you, gentlemen, represent sovereignty. In giving His Excellency³ general and absolute command, the commonalty allowed him to exercise justice, administer civil, naval and military affairs, and to take action in all things pertaining to high authority or sovereignty. The governor general however is only a dispositarius or guardian of sovereignty until it pleases the prince or the people to revoke it. In this state there is no one else who is allowed to do this for it is the people who through you as their officials and servants have committed this power, authority and government to His Excellency. And as according to the general rule in law quo jure quid statuitur eodem jure tolli debet (which means that any thing to be repealed, must be repealed by the law which made it), it follows that if you have been fully authorised by the provinces and towns, or rather by your masters, to commit the government to His Excellency, you need a similar authorisation to take it wholly or in part away from him. And if you have not been charged to reduce his authority or that of the Council of State, indeed, to usurp His Excellency's power as absolute and general governor, you either do not understand what you have been doing and fail to see how extensive this power was or else you are guilty of the crime of disobedience.

2 Quotation from J. Bodin, Les six livres de la République (ed. 1583), book i, chapter iii, p. 124.

3 The earl of Leicester.