Cornelis van Aarsens

The goal of this delegation was to negotiate with the French king Henry IV over the sovereignty of Dutch Republic.

Cornelis van Aerssen was in the same year appointed an official of the Dutch Estates-General, but continued to live in Brussels, which raised the suspicion that he was plotting with the Spanish.

When the Spanish general Francisco de Mendoza was in Woerden and Den Haag as a Dutch prisoner after the Battle of Nieuwpoort, and wanted to start peace negotiations, Van Aerssen was named a Dutch representative alongside the Land's Advocate of Holland Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and the Franciscan Johan Meyen sent by Archduke Albrecht.

Oldenbarnevelt, at the head of the party aiming for peace, welcomed this, as he feared the growing power of the Dutch Stadtholder Maurice, Prince of Orange.

This article incorporates content from Joseph Thomas's Universal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology, a text in the public domain