Letter ID: 0877
Reference: BL, MS Cotton Galba D V f.178r-v
Citation: DCB/001/HTML/0877/008
Date: 12 November 1589

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Endorsed: To Sir Francis Walsingham Nvember 12. 89


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Later Addition: Belgia 1589 12 November To Master Secretary

It may please your H. at the earnest shute of some spetiall parsons heere I write unto yow 3 dayes past in the favor of a duch Capten who was also the bearer of my letters, requesting your H. that yf for such services as he pretended to have don for hir Majesty any order shalbe hath bin given for his recompense he may by your favourable meanes be assisted to receave yt. the same party hath also sollicited Barnevelt the Advisall of Holland, & others to recommend his request to Ortels furderance which they have don very earnestly. with all they have signified in secret to the Capten both by word & by writing, as hee him self hath promised me to declare unto yow, & I have advertized in my former letter, that yf hir Majesty hath passed any graunt of recompense unto him, yt is detayned from him, & receaved by some other, & that his request wilbe rejected & tourned over to the States of Holland, without the privity of hir Majesty this is the malitious conceat of the man, & those of his faction which I have alwaies bin parsuaded notwithstanding all the good meanes that can bee used, will never alter untill her Majesty shall either yeeld to follow his humor in all thinges or seek /some meanes/ to cutt him of from the government. It may please your H. to observe withall the disposition of that Capten who is contented to betray his friendes at the very same instant as they do their uttermost endevour to stand him in steed. for mine owne parte I have no other notion of his qualities, but I see by his dealing hee may be made to serve to as many good purposes as any other bad instrument. The Sconse of Rees which I signified in my last was besieged by thennemy, is sithens taken, with all the artellery & other provision that was in yt but the souldiers parmitted to departe, who neither fought nor attended any shot. the Muteny in [Zgravenwert] will not be [appreased] with 2500[ls] [stivers] which hath bin offred unto them, the demand doth encrease every daie, and doth not amount to so litell as 10000[ls], which is not heer to be had. These five daies the Deputies that came last out of England have continued their reporte to the general States of theyr negotiation there, which when they have finished I will call earnestly upon them to parfourme theyr promise to your Ho. in the cause of Vasseur wherof I have put them already in remembrance & they have promised to do theyr best. Letters written hether from Collen advertize that there are in a redines to marche towardes the ayde of the Frenche K 7000 horse & 50 ensignes of footemen whose rendyvous is assigned the 20 of this moneth at Oppenheim by ments. Yt is held for certayne that the Spaniardes to the nomber of 1500 ar mutined in Dermon[d] & comit many outrages over all those quarters. Yt is in deliberacion among us at this present whether considering the danger of Gelderland by the meanes of the Ennemies retorne, yt may be expedient that all the forces of these contreyes both English & other be sent thether, wherupon ther is nothing yet resolved. There is also a present consultacion about the surprising of the Ennemies fort before Zutphen, which is thought will prove an easy enterprise and fol.178v
very profitable to the countrey. The state heer ys very much troubled by reason of a new mutiny raysed in theyr garrison of Wike a place of strength & of great importance about 2 leagues from Utrecht, where the souldiers require to be discharged of their obedience, & demand their full count & [.], In effect all theyr goverment heer ys so voyde of yt appartayneth to good goverment, so confuse, so partiall, so full of injustice, as almost all men wax wery of doing ervice to the countrey, for theyr ys no governor to take notice of any mans vertu or vices whereby the good may stand in hope of reward, or the badd in feare of punishment, in which respect & for the hard measure, which they daily offer to theyr martiall men, yt is greatly feared that as they have lately begun in Sgravenwert, Lifkens Hoeke, Lillo & Wijke, so there wilbe ere bee long in generall revolte in most of theyr garrisons.
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