History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

her six sister Provinces with this great resolve; and
it was Protestantism that was to build up their State
in the face of the powerful enemies that surrounded
it, and in spite of the reverses and disasters to
which it still continued to be liable. But the
Hollanders were slow to understand this, and to see
wherein their great strength lay. They feared to
trust their future to so intangible and invisible a
protector. They looked abroad in the hope of
finding some foreign prince who might be willing
to accept their crown, and to employ his power in
their defense. They hesitated some time between
Henry III. of France and Elizabeth of England, and
at last their choice fell on the former. Henry was
nearer them, he could the more easily send them
assistance; besides, they hoped that on his death his
crown would devolve on the King of Navarre, the
future Henry IV., in whose hands they believed
their religion and liberty would be safe. Willingly
would Henry III. have enhanced the splendor of his
crown by adding thereto the Seven United
Provinces, but he feared the wrath of the League,
the intrigues of Philip, and the ban of the Pope.
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