History of the United Netherlands, 1609





CHAPTER LII.

Vote of the States-General on the groundwork of the treaty--
Meeting of the plenipotentiaries for arrangement of the truce--
Signing of the twelve years' truce--Its purport--The negotiations
concluded--Ratification by the States-General, the Archdukes, and
the King of Spain--Question of toleration--Appeal of President
Jeannin on behalf of the Catholics--Religious liberty the fruit of
the war--Internal arrangements of the States under the rule of
peace--Deaths of John Duke of Cleves and Jacob Arminius--Doctrines
of Arminius and Gomarus--Theological warfare--Twenty years' truce
between the Turkish and Roman empires--Ferdinand of Styria--
Religious peace--Prospects of the future.

On the 11th January, 1609, the States-General decided by unanimous vote
that the first point in the treaty should be not otherwise fixed than,
thus:--

"That the archdukes--to superfluity--declare, as well in their own name
as in that of the King of Spain, their willingness to treat with the
lords States of the United Provinces in the capacity of, and as holding
them for, free countries, provinces, and states, over which they have no
claim, and that they are making a treaty with them in those said names
and qualities."