The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 32: 1582-84Motley, John Lothrop
History
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 32: 1582-84
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- Church history; Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
qualities, in short, which would in themselves have stamped him as one of
the master-minds of his century, had there been no other monument to his
memory than the remains of his spoken or written eloquence. The bulk of
his performances in this department was prodigious. Not even Philip was
more industrious in the cabinet. Not even Granvelle held a more facile
pen. He wrote and spoke equally well in French German, or Flemish; and
he possessed, besides; Spanish, Italian, Latin. The weight of his
correspondence alone would have almost sufficed for the common industry
of a lifetime, and although many volumes of his speeches and, letters
have been published, there remain in the various archives of the
Netherlands and Germany many documents from his hand which will probably
never see the light. If the capacity for unremitted intellectual labor
in an honorable cause be the measure of human greatness, few minds could
be compared to the "large composition" of this man. The efforts made to
destroy the Netherlands by the most laborious and painstaking of tyrants
were counteracted by the industry of the most indefatigable of patriots.
Thus his eloquence, oral or written, gave him almost boundless power
over his countrymen. He possessed, also, a rare perception of human
character, together with an iron memory which never lost a face, a place,
or an event, once seen or known. He read the minds even the faces of
men, like printed books. No man could overreach him, excepting only
those to whom he gave his heart. He might be mistaken where he had
confided, never where he had been distrustful or indifferent. He was
deceived by Renneberg, by his brother-in-law Van den Berg, by the Duke of
Anjou. Had it been possible for his brother Louis or his brother John to
have proved false, he might have been deceived by them. He was never
outwitted by Philip, or Granvelle, or Don John, or Alexander of Parma.
Anna of Saxony was false to him; and entered into correspondence with the
royal governors and with the King of Spain; Charlotte of Bourbon or
Louisa de Coligny might have done the same had it been possible for their
natures also to descend to such depths of guile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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