Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland : with a view of the primary causes and movements of the Thirty Years' War, 1614-17

From the opening

The Advocate sounds the Alarm in Germany--His Instructions to Langerac and his Forethought--The Prince--Palatine and his Forces take Aachen, Mulheim, and other Towns--Supineness of the Protestants--Increased Activity of Austria and the League--Barneveld strives to obtain Help from England--Neuburg departs for Germany-- Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism--Ernest Mansfield takes service under Charles Emmanuel--Count John of Nassau goes to Savoy--Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty proposed--Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England-- Sequestration feared--The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear before the Emperor at Prague--Murder of John van Wely--Uytenbogaert incurs Maurice's Displeasure--Marriage of the King of France with Anne of Austria--Conference between King James and Caron concerning Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten--Barneveld's Survey of the Condition of Europe--His Efforts to avert the impending general War.

I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of the Republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and writings at that period. This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate humanity- upon the march of great events, upon general historical results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. It may also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale.

Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our own country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and homely, that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially instructive.

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