In January 1587 the English garrisons at Deventer and Zutphen were bribed to defect to Spain, followed by those in Zwolle, Arnhem, and Ostend. This contributed to anti-English feeling. Leicester occupied Gouda, Schoonhoven, and a few other cities in September 1587, but eventually gave up and returned to England in December 1587. Thus ended the last attempt to keep the Netherlands a "mixed monarchy", under foreign government. The northern provinces now entered a period of more than two centuries of republican government.