Elizabeth reluctantly committed England to direct military intervention in the Low Countries through the Treaty of Nonsuch in August 1585, accepting the economic necessity of preventing a hostile Spanish power from controlling the region's vital trade routes.
Three days after Antwerp's fall, Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonsuch — the first treaty between a foreign power and what would become the Dutch Republic. She agreed to send over 7,000 troops and subsidize their cost, while extracting three strategic port towns as 'cautionary' hostages to control access to the Scheldt estuary. This represented a reluctant but necessary step toward open conflict with Spain. ✦ AI generated
Tom Holland · The Rest Is History · 2026-08-10 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 40:40
Three days later after the fall of Antwerp on the 20th of August, a treaty is signed between Elizabeth I and the Dutch rebels at a palace built by Henry VIII at a place called Nonsuch in Surrey. And this is the first ever treaty signed by what will become the Dutch Republic with a foreign power. And by its terms, Elizabeth agrees to send an expeditionary force to the Low Countries to support Holland and the other rebel provinces. And this is to consist of 6,350 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. And amazingly, Elizabeth says, I will subsidize the cost of this. And she chooses as the commander of this expeditionary force her old favorite, the Earl of Leicester. And because she doesn't entirely trust the Dutch, she obliges them to hand over three key ports to English garrisons to serve the English as what are described as cautionary towns.
verbatim transcript · starts at 40:40
40:40terrible news. Um and so 3 days later after the fall of Antwerp on the 20th of August a treaty is signed um between Elizabeth I and the Dutch rebels um at a palace built by Henry VIII at a place called Nonsuch in Surrey. And this is the first ever treaty signed by what will become the Dutch Republic with a foreign power. And by its terms, Elizabeth agrees to send an
41:06expeditionary force to the Low Countries to support Holland and the other rebel provinces. And this is to consist of 6,350 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. And amazingly, Elizabeth says, "I will subsidize the cost of this." I mean, must have caused her agony to do that. and she chooses as the commander of this expeditionary force her old favorite, the Earl of Leicester. And because she doesn't entirely trust the Dutch,
41:37she obliges them to hand over three key ports to English garrisons to serve the English as what are described as cautionary towns. So basically these towns are are kind of hostages. Um, and they are the town of Bril, which commanded the um, the mouth of the great river Mars or the MS if you're speaking in French. Um, and Flushing and Ramachen, which are ports on an island
42:02just beyond the Shelt Eststerie. And the reason for choosing these ports is that between them, it enables the English to control what goes in and goes out of the Shelt Estster down towards Antwerp. So in other words, to throttle the ability of the Spanish to move by sea from Antworp round the northern coast towards the rebel heartlands in Holland and Zealand. >> And the guy who's going to be uh in
42:29charge of one of these Flushing >> Mhm. >> is the star of today's episode. He's finally got his chance. He's finally got his opportunity to have a crack at the Spanish and write his name into the history books. And that is our friend Sir Phillip Sydney. >> Yeah. So hooray for Sir Phillip Sydney. And I think he owes this appointment to various factors. Favoritism obviously he's the nephew of Leicester who is um