In less than two years he was forced to return home.
[Sidenote: 1587] [Sidenote: Oldenbarneveldt, 1547-1619] Under the statesmanlike guidance of John van Oldenbarneveldt, since 1586 Pensionary of Holland, a Republic was set up founded on the supremacy of the Estates.

Under his exact, prudent, and resolute leadership internal freedom and external power were alike developed.
Though the war continued long after 1588 the defeat of the Armada in that year crippled Spain beyond hope of recovery and made the new nation practically safe.
[Sidenote: The Dutch Republic] The North had suffered much in the war.

The frequent inundation of the land destroyed crops.

Amsterdam long held out against the rest of Holland in loyalty to the king, but she suffered so much by the blockade of the Beggars of the Sea and by the emigration of her merchants to nearby cities, that at last she gave in and cast her lot with her people.

From that time she assumed the commercial hegemony once exercised by Antwerp.