On the death of Maximilian in 1519 Charles was elected German Emperor and crowned October 22, 1519, at Aix-la-Chapelle and received from the Pope the title of Roman Emperor, making him the most powerful monarch in Europe. A zealous Catholic, he aimed to nullify the doctrine taught by the reformer Martin Luther and to compel the Hollanders, the Netherlanders, to express their faith and belief in Ignatius Loyola, the reputed founder of the Society of Jesus—the Jesuits. It was not Loyola but Torquemada, whose name, as the Chief Inquisitor, became a by-word and reproach. Justin Winsor, a high authority, said that Carlyle said, “Those Dutch are a strong people. They raised their land out of a marsh and went on for a long time breeding cows and making cheese and might have gone with their cows and cheese till doomsday. But Spain comes over and says, ‘We want you to believe in Ignatius.’ The Dutch replied, ‘We are very sorry, but we cannot.’ ‘God, but you must,’ said Spain, and went about it with guns and swords to make the Dutch believe in Ignatius.” Thus began a religious war (usually the fiercest and most unrelenting) which, with some cessation of hostilities, lasted for nearly seventy years, down to 1648, when the independence of the Dutch Republic was acknowledged and it had become one of the foremost, if not really the foremost, power in Europe. War (which Erasmus called “the malady of princes” and General Sherman called “hell”), begun by Charles I of Spain against the Netherlands, was continued by his son and grandson and resulted in driving out of Europe many of North America’s early and most desirable settlers. Many of the Dutch East India Company’s vessels were equipped for war as well as for commerce and her East India possessions were active in building and fitting out ships which captured many and rich prizes from the Spaniards. The richest locality for capturing such prizes was in the West Indies, and what the Netherlands greatly needed was territory near there, where her ships could be sheltered, repaired, and obtain the needed supplies. Spain was in possession of nearly all of what is now the south of the United States, and France of Canada. The English held Virginia and claimed what is now called New England, but between the two was a territory that seemed free for settlement and there is reason to believe that the Dutch East India Company was aware of that fact and aimed to take it.