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From 1584, Elizabeth played an active role in assisting the Protestant Dutch rebels of the Low Countries (modern Netherlands and Belgium) to oppose their monarch, Philip II of Spain. A treaty of alliance with the Dutch, under William of Orange, had been signed as early as 1579, but it was not until 1584 that English troops were dispatched. In 1585, Elizabeth formally took the Netherlands under her protection (following the assassination in July 1584 of Protestant leader, William of Orange), ten years after she had refused an offer of full sovereignty. Beside the official English troops under leaders such as the Earl of Leicester, there were also a number of English, Irish and Scottish mercenaries who fought in the Dutch wars both on the Protestant side and the Catholic side (and when the situation merited, both sides!).
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