Pistoleer: Invasion

by Smith, Skye

  "Isaac, you paint too dark a picture,” Rob replied in good though accented Dutch. "Daniel and I have both lived and thrived in the republics, and wish the like in England. Nowhere is life more vibrant. Nowhere are the plain folk so emboldened. Nowhere does imagination turn into success more easily."

  Isaac smiled at them. "I agree if you speak of each of the provinces, or the cities, or the Dutch folk, but not when you speak about The Hague. It is a town of palaces and courts and pomp and sycophants. The provinces would do better to hand The Hague and all of its players to the Spanish Netherlands and let it be their problem. How can the provinces possibly strengthen their republics while they still have the remnants of princely courts interfering in their politics. I spend my days hopping from the court of the Stadtholder, to that of Bohemia in exile, to that of Henrietta in exile, and then to each of the committees that represent each of the provinces."

  "You make it sound like nothing is ever decided,” Rob sneered, "and yet the Dutch are fast building an empire that spans the globe."

  "Decisions are made, but they are never final. This because decisions are made by each of the parts, and action is taken by each of the parts, but rarely with consensus."

  Leslie, who was on the wheel, groaned. With Isaac standing close to him, he had been listening in out of boredom, but the longer Isaac and Rob spoke to each other, the longer and more complex were the phrases and words. Now it was all double Dutch. He went back to watching the horizon ahead for deadhead logs and sandbars.

  "The Hapsburgs of Spain and Austria could destroy the Dutch Republics quite easily if they ever found out how dysfunctional The Hague was,” Isaac continued. "All they need do is make peace with them and withdraw their armies, and within five years the eight provinces would be tearing at each other's throats. It is only the threat of the Hapsburgs that keeps them united."

  Daniel had been listening in but was also having trouble with the learned words. Not so much when they spoke Dutch, but when they spoke English. English was a mix of many languages, which meant that it had many completely different words meaning the same thing, and two many words that sounded the same but had completely different meanings. At one time he had tried to learn Spanish, and he had been amazed at how simple and logical it was, but of course, he could never admit this to any Englishman or Dutchman. "Perhaps it is because the many parts of the union are free to act that the Dutch are so successful,” he told them. "You know. Say five provinces try to solve a problem in five different ways. Whichever way turns out to be the best way will eventually be adopted by all."

  "A good thought, and well put,” said Isaac thoughtfully. "Yes, I'll have to give that more thought."

  "So what actually do you do in The Hague?” Rob asked.

  "You mean to say, what does Walter Strickland do in The Hague, for I am just his 'go for'. His main work is keeping the Stats-General from giving any assistance to Henrietta, and therefore to Charles. He has no influence in any of the princely courts, for they do not acknowledge him as an ambassador. His main successes are built up from countless small successes with the bankers, especially the Jewish bankers."

  "Bankers!” Daniel grumbled. "What is that saying from the Bible? The love of bankers is the root of all evil. Why is he dealing with bankers?"

  "Because Henrietta's mission is not just a diplomatic one,” Isaac continued. "If that were so, she would be in Paris not The Hague. Her most important task is to raise coin, and use that coin to rent soldiers and buy supplies. When she fled from England, she stole the crown jewels and now she is claiming that they are hers to sell. Selling such costly baubles requires bankers. The United Provinces have the richest market for precious jewels, the biggest banks, the most modern weapons, and a lot of seasoned veterans in search of a new battle."

  "If her mission is not just a diplomatic one,” Rob thought aloud, "then neither is Ambassador Strickland's."

  "Exactly,” Isaac confirmed. "Though publicly he plays courtier, it is what he does in secret that matters most. Civil wars breed an abundance of spies, and double-spies, and double dealing, and information for sale. Walter is the paymaster, while I make sense of the bits and pieces of truth that he has bought. So which of you speak the best Dutch?"

  Rob and Daniel looked at each other. Rob spoke for them both. "Mine is the Dutch of an Englishman. Daniel's is the Dutch of a Frisian. I cannot pass for a Dutchman but Daniel easily can."

  "And your crews?"

  "My crew all know trading Dutch, as does everyone on the sea, whereas Daniel's all learned the Frisian mother-tongue in the cradle."

  "Ah, the same as Anso's crew then,” Isaac nodded sagely. Frisian was the mother tongue of many of the North Sea languages, including old English. He smiled to himself. Anso's crew had been very useful to Strickland because they could pretend to be Dutch. That would continue with Daniel's crew.

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  The Pistoleer - Invasion by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-15

  Chapter 24 - An Ambush in The Hague in February 1643

  They walked along Hartogstraat until they reached number 17. All of the buildings along the street were townhouses, and presumably homes, however each was also a place of business despite the absence of business signs on the walls or above the doors. Daniel walked up the front step of 17 and knocked, while Isaac Dorislaus and Robert Blake stood on the foot walk and waited. When someone inside looked out through a small hatch in the door, he pushed a card of introduction through to them, as Isaac had told him to do.

  There way here from the embassy had taken them past the Binnen Hof, the great palace used by the Stats-General as their seat of office. Isaac had told them that the representatives from each of the eight Dutch republics had little say over the army or navy, which was controlled by Stadtholder Frederick, but they did have control of the Dutch East and West Indies companies. The value of each of those companies equaled the value of the eight provinces, and the area of land each company controlled was many times the area of the eight provinces. Control of these two mighty companies and their unlimited resources was the main thing that kept Prince Frederick from declaring himself a king.

  The Stats-General had agreed that the eight republics would stay neutral in the English civil war, which meant that the two mighty companies were also neutral, which meant that the public merchant banks were also neutral. In convincing the Stats-General, Walter Strickland had cut Henrietta off from much of the readily available financing great enough to buy the crown jewels that she had stolen from England. There were still two other sources. Other royal courts, and the families represented by this row of houses on Hartogstrat.

  In these houses lived the representatives of private banks. The private banks were family based, and those families had similar home offices all over Europe and the Levant. Each one of these houses represented a hidden empire that stretched far and wide. Hidden, for these bankers did not own things, or run things. Instead they owned the debts of those who did own and run things such as land and buildings and ships. Number 17 represented a Venetian family of bankers who were well known for accepting jewels as collateral for debts.

  The doorman was dressed all in black and his face was hidden by a fluffy beard and hair that had seemingly never been cut. On his head was a skullcap, perhaps to hide a bald spot, or perhaps in some religious custom. His dark eyes stared at each man in turn for hard moment as if memorizing their faces. First at the tall fair man in the plain wool cloak, then the normal sized man with the neatly trimmed beard and the courtly cloak, and then at the short man with dark hair and the cavalry boots. He looked down at the card in his hand and asked in heavily accented Dutch, "Which of you is Mister Dorislaus?"

  Isaac answered in fluent Dutch. He had grown up in Holland as the son of a Calvinist Minister, and had read law in Dutch at Leyden, but his career as a teacher, a lawyer and a judge had all been while living in Cambridge. "I am he. There is a meeting here today, I believe. A meeting at which I am expected."


  They were shown into the house. Although from the outside the front door look like a common wooden door, once inside there was a second door, or rather a gate. A gate made of heavy iron bars the likes of which would have been more in place in a goal than in this tall townhouse. Or perhaps not, since this was a bankierhuis. Only once the door was bolted did another man, a younger man and armed, come and open the iron gate. They were led past a series of plain and unadorned rooms and then up a staircase. On the next floor the house looked far more welcoming and comfortable, nay, lavish, and most of this floor was taken up by one room in which seven men were sitting quietly on one side of a long table.

  The table had one chair on the other side from these men, but two more chairs were quickly placed beside that one. Their winter cloaks were taken from them, and taken away out of the room, which made Daniel very glad that he had thought to move his pocket pistol from his cloak to his jacket pocket. He wondered where Rob's pocket pistol was. They were ushered to sit in the three chairs. Only once they were sat, were they asked if they needed refreshments or a warm drink such as cacaolait, and they all chose the cacao for Dutch cacao was made very rich and served very hot, and mixed with cayenne pepper in the way of the new world. It was the best of drinks to warm a body.

  The seven men introduced themselves, and mentioned which house number they were from, but failed to mention the name of the banking family that they represented. All of them shared the look of the man at the door. These seven men were the voice of Jewish banking in The Hague, and therefore the voice of Jewish Jewelers throughout the eight republics. Once the introductions were complete, they waited politely and patiently for Isaac to warm himself, catch his breath and gather his thoughts.

  When Isaac spoke it was in his fluent Dutch. "I have come from Walter Strickland, the Ambassador of England, to once again ask that your banks refrain from assisting our Queen, Henrietta, in the selling or attaching of the crown jewels of our kingdom."

  "A point of clarity,” the youngest of the seven men, perhaps as young as fifty, said softly with an accent, perhaps Portuguese. "In Dan Haag there are two Ambassadors from England, one appointed by King Charles and the other by Parliament. They have widely different views on the provenance and ownership of the jewels that your queen has offered for sale. Your queen claims them as the personal property of the king and she possesses a letter from him proclaiming this, describing the jewels, and naming her as his agent in the selling of them. That said, we accept that there are valid legal claims on both sides. Please continue."

  "The queen has obviously been able to sell or attach some of the jewels, for this winter she has chartered ships, gathered and paid an army of foreigners, and loaded the ships with weapons and other supplies of war. The storms may have turned this convoy back, but it will surely sail again once the weather calms. This convoy amounts to a foreign invasion of England. Each jewel she is able to sell will cost England more hardship, injury, and death."

  The youngest man made another point of clarity. "In Amsterdam the queen has been able to sell some smaller pieces, and some smaller gemstones, plus a fine collar of pearls. Her claim was that these were her personal jewels, and as she is a daughter of France, it was a believable claim. None of these pieces were described on the description lists that the ambassador provided to us. Although the sales were arranged by members of our community, we advanced no funds towards the purchase. The buyers were the vain wives of wealthy merchants. Please continue."

  "We have heard that the ruby collars and the three brethren stones, which are the centerpieces of the crown's collection, have either been sold or attached,” Isaac said. Attached was the polite way of saying collateral.

  "First, such mammoth stones do not interest us, other than for our admiration of such wondrous gems. Such gems are priceless, which is to say, they have no real value but only an imagined value. This because there is no active daily market for stones of such size and quality. Smaller gems have a real value only because dozens of them are bought and sold every day. Gems are things of vanity, and selling to vanity is a fickle business."

  "Then diamonds and rubies are like tulip bulbs,” Isaac said with a frown. These families had become very wealthy, not from speculating in tulips, but from making loans against land and buildings so that other could speculate in tulips. When the tulip market crashed, many Dutch families were ruined when these families foreclosed on the collateral. "Did any of your community arrange for the sale of the collars?"

  The eldest of the men spoke out with a thick Italian accent which did not hide all of the anger in his voice, "If men speculate and lose, and afterwards are forgiven all their debts, then this rewards them for being foolish. In banking that is considered as immoral as theft, for someone must always pay. Whether it be the greedy speculator, or the careful saver, someone must pay. It would be most immoral for the savers to pay for the mistakes of the greedy."

  The man stopped speaking abruptly and took a deep breath before continuing in a softer tone. "In answer to your question, we were all offered the collars, and all of us leaped to the chance of holding them in our hands and viewing them, but all of us refused to deal in them. There is one rumour that the King of Denmark guaranteed a loan based on the collars and another rumour that the guarantor was the Prince of Orange. A loan was indeed made by the merchant William Webster of Amsterdam, but his own pockets are not nearly deep enough for this. We believe that the funds actually had a French source."

  "Why all the rumour and subterfuge?” Isaac asked with a sigh. "Her brother is the King of France. Why would he not make such a loan directly?"

  "Did I mention the king? Nay I did not. Henrietta's mother was Marie de Medici of the House of Medici, the Florentine banking family. They are the power behind a dozen thrones included the throne of Rome. Look to the bright side, for there is good news in this. The jewels were a surety for a loan, but not sold, so if Parliament humbles the king they can simply repay that loan to regain the jewels."

  "Then I have your word that your community have taken no part in paying for the invasion?” Isaac asked pointedly.

  "We gave you our word when we sent our petition with you to London. We have kept our word. What became of our petition?"

  Isaac nodded to Rob, who then placed a leather folder on the table and pushed it towards the grey haired old man with the dark eyes and hooked nose. "Inside,” Isaac told them, "you will find seven letters of passport, one in the name of each of your families and each for one agent. Also there is a five year lease on one large house near to Threadneedle Street in the City of London. It is a grand house, large enough to be shared by those seven agents. Now, do you have something for me?"

  A similar leather folder was pushed across the table towards Isaac. "Inside,” said the man who pushed it, "you will find a partial list of Orangemen who are your queen's strongest allies, plus a partial list of her English and Dutch agents in Holland. As promised there are copies of the ships manifests which show the cargo loaded onto her ships, and most of the passenger list. As a sweetener, there is one paper that gives the next departure date and course of her convoy, its destination, its alternate destination, and the name of the city governor who has agreed to change to the king's side in order to enable the landing."

  "I am satisfied,” Isaac said, having to hold himself in check from grabbing up the folder so he could read the names immediately. That however, would be a breach of trust. He must wait until at the embassy to read them. "Are you satisfied?"

  "We would have preferred the rescinding of the law from 1290 which banned Hebrews from England, but this is a good start. Will we be allowed to practice our faith?"

  "In private in that house, and nowhere else. And be warned ... your agents must dress and groom themselves as Englishmen or Dutchmen,” Isaac said while motioning to the beard and hair of the old man.

  "Agreed. Then we have a deal."

  Isaac stood and reached across the table to shake their hands. At first they held
back, but then one by one they offered him a limp hand as if they were helpless to refuse the touch. He picked up the folder and led Daniel and Rob from the room, down the stairs, through the iron barred gate and to the front door where two men were waiting to help them with their cloaks. Daniel quickly moved his pocket pistol into his cloak pocket and then motioned Rob to do the same.

  "Do you wish an escort back to your embassy?” the gatekeeper asked. He was young and his Dutch was without accent, but he had the dark skin of someone just returned from the tropics.

  "No, we don't have far to go,” Isaac said, and then went through the door and into the cold air of winter.

  They walked briskly to the end of Hartogstraat and then crossed the De Plaets square towards Viver Berg, the road that led along the Viver reflective pool on this side of the Binnen Hof palace. They decided to keep off the wind swept road and instead took the more peaceful foot path through the grove of tall, though winter naked, trees that ran along the pool. Strickland's Embassy was in a house just beyond the Binnen Hof so they did not have far to go.

  This peaceful path through the graceful grove of trees was unusual in a Dutch town, but then The Hague had never been walled and so the houses had never been crushed together. Because it had no protective wall the Dutch referred to it as a village rather than a town. Perhaps they were right in this, for every cluster of houses around the various palaces of the various royals and embassies was each like a village.

  Though it was cold, the sun was high and bright, and there was a majestic view of the Binnen Hof through the cathedral like columns of these tree trunks and across the reflecting pool. Daniel took Isaacs arm to steady him on the rough path so they could step up their pace. He wanted desperately to open the folder and see the date, course, and destination of the invasion. Isaac had looked at it briefly once away from the meeting table, but he had not yet shared the information. He would not do that without Strickland's permission.