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if you were not the living image of their Illustrious Defender Referring to Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (1584–1647), the father of the recipient and a key military leader in the Dutch struggle for independence against Spain., or, to put it better, another version of himself, in whom they The United Provinces of the Netherlands. can recover all that they have lost; it is right that we pay you a debt that we owed him, since you are his heir in all things. He leaves to Your Highness original: "V. A." (Votre Altesse). both much glory and very great wealth; but there is none more precious, nor more useful, than his Reputation and his Example. By the one, MY LORD, you will make yourself capable of equaling the other; and by that means, you will rise to the highest level that a great courage, governed by exquisite prudence, could hope to reach. You have as a model a Prince, who for twenty-two years, held back in a corner of Europe all the forces of a Monarch Philip IV of Spain (1605–1665), whose global empire was the primary antagonist of the Dutch Republic., whose ambition had no other limits than those of the world; who made him uselessly consume the treasures with which he exhausted the Indies The Spanish colonial territories in the Americas and Asia, the source of the silver and gold that funded the Spanish military.; who made him lose strongholds original: "fortes Places"; strategically fortified cities., and even entire provinces; and