CENTRE
for
REFORMATION
and
RENAISSANCE
STUDIES

VICTORIA
UNIVERSITY

TORONTO

HISTORY OF ENGLAND
6o3-642

VOL V.

REF. & REI'i.

TIIE OURA7Y TO 3L4DRID. CH. XLn.

Steenie, as he was called from some real or imaginary resem-
blance to a picture of St. Stephen in the King's possession,
never asked him to trouble himself with the painful operation
of thinking, whilst he took care to represent his own foregone
conclusions with all outward forms of respect. He had early
discovered how easy it was to make a tool of Charles. The
inertness of the father, which had so often refused to comply
with his sudden freaks, had no place in the son. Had Charles
been on the throne in James's place, there can be little doubt
that England would have been engaged in a war with the Em-
peror in x62o, in a war with the Netherlands in 62i, and in a
war with Spain in 6z_-,.
At what time the King was first acquainted with the plan is
uncertain; but, on the whole, it is most probable that before
the end of the year his consent had been won to the
The journey
proooeto project, though in a different shape from that which
it afterwards assumed. If Buckingham was to go as
Adnairal of the Fleet to fetch the Infanta home in May, there
would be comparatively few objections to his taking the Prince
on shipboard with him. By that time the dispensation would
have arrived, and the conditions of the marriage would be
irrevocably settled. It could not, therefore, be said that there
was any likelihood of Charles being treated as a hostage for the
enforcement of new and exorbitant conditions.

' " And I have it de bond maria, and under the rose, that the Prince
himself goes in person." Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 4, S. _p.
cxxvii. 5- This puts out of the question Clarendon 's story of the journey
being suggested at once just before the Prince started. It must be remem-
bered that our only knowledge of the scene whtch follows is derived from
him. tie undoubtedly obtained his informatim from Cottinton, and that
part of his narrative which relates to things which passed before Cottington's
own eyes may be at once accepted. But the remainder of his story, though
doubtless generally true, is liable to error whenever it touches upon those
circumstances of general history with which Clarendon had not made him-
self familiar. Clarendon, for instance, incorrectly asserts that the Marquis
and the Prince had been at variance up to this time, that the journey to
Spain was the beginning of James's dissatisfaction with 13uckingham, and
tat Frederick had already ' incurred the ban of the Empire in an Imperial
diet,' all of which statements are manifestly incorrect. I suspect that the
first conversation took place about lgew Year's Day, and related only

4

THE jrO URA'E Y TO $rADRZD. cI-I. XLIIL

the danger into which he was running. If any evil befell the
Prince, he added, turning to Buckingham as he spoke, it was at
his door that the blame would be laid, and his ruin would be
unavoidable. Then, bursting into tears, he begged them not
to press him to a thing so mischievous in every way, the execu-
tion of which was sure to break his heart.
Neither Charles nor Buckingham took the trouble to argue
the question. With Buckingham, at least, it was a fundamental
J uag a article of faith that opposition and difficulty must
cn,- and give way before him. The Prince contented himself
Buck.ing-
Ot's" with reminding his father of the promise which he
had given the day before, and with assuring him that if he were
forbidden to go to Spain, he would never marry at all. The
insolent favourite took higher ground, and told the King that
if he broke his promises in this way, nobody would ever believe
him again. He must have consulted some one, in spite of his
engagement to secrecy. If the rascal who had suggested such
pitiful resons could be discovered, he was sure the Prince
would never forgive him.
The poor King was completely cowed. He swore that he
had never communicated the secret to anyone, and allowed
Cottington's the young men to discuss the details of the ourney,
opinion, as if there had been no question of stopping it.
Cottington and Porter were soon mentioned as proper per-
sons to accompany the Prince. Upon this the King sent for
Cottington, in the hope that he would prove more successful
than himself in combating the idea.
As Cottington entered the room, Buckingham turned to
Charles. "This man," he whispered in his ear, "will be agafnst
the " " "
journey. " No, answered the Prince, "he dares not."
"Cottington," said the King, after engaging him to silence,
"here are Baby Charles and Steenie, who have a great mind to
go by post into Spain, to fetch home the Infanta, and will have
but two more in their company, and have chosen you for one.
What think you of the journey ?" In his amazement, Cotting-
ton, cool as he generally was, could scarcely speak. It was
only upon the question being repeated that he answered, in a
d cmbhng voice, that he could not think well of it. In his

6

2HE JOURWEY 0 3IDRID. CH XLII!

many penniless kinswomen of the favourite. 1 At the same
1on.,on ana time, young Monson, who five years before had been
Brett sent selected by the Howards as a possible rival to Buck-
abroad.
ingbam in the King's good graces, was knighted,
and sent to travel on the Continent. A more formidable
opponent was treated in the same way. For some time the
discordance between the parsimony of Middlesex and the lavish
ostentation of Buckingham had threatened to lead to an open
rupture, and it was even supposed that the Lord Treasurer had
fixed his eye upon his brother-in-law, Arthur Brett, a handsome
gentlemm of the bedchamber, as one who might possibly sup-
plant the favourite. Of the particulars of the quarrel we have
no information. .lust as he was ready to start, Buckingham
sought a reconciliation. Brett, like Monson, was knighted, and
recommended to kee l ) out of the way.
On the x6th, Cottington, who had by this time made his
peace with Iuckingham, was created a baronet, and was ordered
to take Porter with him to Dover, and to hire a vessel
Feb. 7.
:the rine for crossing the Straits. The next day Charles took
sets out. leave of his father at Tb_eobalds, and rode off, ac-
companied by Buckingham, to the Marquis's house in Essex.
Fb. 8. On the morning of the Sth the real difficulties of the
ad,,e,tu adventure began. Disgui.sed with false beards, the
on the way. tWO young men started from Newhall, under the names
of Tom and John Smith. They had no one with them but Sir
Richard Graham, the Marquis's master of the horse and con-
fidential attendant. At the ferry opposite Gravesend they sur-
prised the boatman by ordering him to put them ashore on the
outskirts of the town instead of at the usual place of landing.
His astonishment was complete when one of the party handed

' Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. o, S. /9. /9ore. cxxxviii, e3- It
appears from Buckingham's defence (us,,orth, i. 387), that the King
promised to grant lands in fee farm of his own instead. It also appears,
from the Patent Rolls, that a large grant was passed, under the Great Seal,
to Mandeville by Charles almost immediately after his accession, and it
was expressly stated that this was done in fulfilment of James's promises.
It is true that money was paid for the land. But this may easily have
been a mere blind, the land being undervalued. Pat. ! Charles Z., Part 2.

_6"2  DIFFICULTIES OF OLI VIRES.  
Catholic Church. Olivares then went to find the King, and
the strange news was discussed between thenl in
Olivares in-
forms a,e the royal bedchamber. On one point they were soon
i,g. agreed. If Charles had not made up his mind to
change his religion, he would not have colne to Spain. Philip,
turning to a crucifix which stood at the head of his bed,
addressed Him whom the image represented. " Lord," he
said, "I swear to Thee, by the crucified union of God and
man, which I adore in Thee at whose feet I place nay lips, that
the coming of the Prince of Wales shall not prevail with me, in
anything touching Thy Catholic religion, to go a step beyond
that which thy vicar the Roman Pontiff may resolve, even if
it may involve tile loss of all the kingdolns which, by Thy
favour and lnercy, I possess. As to what is temporal and is
lnine," he added, looking at Olivares, "see that all his wishes
are gratified, in consideration of the obligation under which he
has placed us by coining here." With these words he dislnissed
Olivares for the night. During the first months of the year,
the position of the Spanish minister had been one of extrelne
difficulty. If, indeed, a choice became inevitable, he would
undoubtedly elect to stand by the side of the Emperor in war,
rather than leave the cause of his Church without support. But
tile prospect was most unwelcome, and he had strained every
nerve to bring Ferdinand and James to consent to terms, which,
in his ignorance of the temper of Protestant nations, he tZancied
would prove acceptable to both parties. Already his dream
had begun to melt away before the hard realities of life. It
was known at Madrid that the Emperor was not to
Difficult
position of be bribed to relinquish his fixcd intention by the
oi,..r, promise of the Infanta's hand for his son. For some
weeks Olivares had been tormented with renewed demands
that the Spanish Government should take a side. Kbeven-
hfiller, the hnperial Ambassador, and De Massinfi, the Papal
Nuncio, had been urging hiln, in no measured terlns, to secure
his master's approbation for the transference of the Electorate,
whilst Bristol had been no less persistent in pressing him to
t Ro.ca, .4dd. 2tISS. 25,689, fo]. 65. Appendix to Francisco de esus,
3-5.

6 TJr.E JOURA'.EY TO f.IADRID, cH. XLtIl.
Consulta I there concluded that the Pope might, nay ought, for
the weal of Christendom, to grant a dispensation upon these
conditions. These things may justly be laid be%re them, but I
know not what ye mean by my acknowledging the Pope's spiritual
supremacy. I am sure ye would not have me renounce my
religion for all the world, but all that I can guess at your mean-
ing is that it may be ye have an allusion to a passage in my
book against Bellarmin, where I offer, if the Pope would quit his
godhead and usurping over kings, to acknowledge him for the
Chief Bishop, to which all appeals of churchmen ought to lie
et dewier ressort, the very words I send you here enclosed, and
that is the farthest that my conscience will permit me to go
upon this point, for I am not a monsieur who can shift his
religion as easily as he can shift his shirt when he cometh from
tennis." 
It is not probable that either Charles or Buckingham was
seriously thinking of acknowledging the authority of the Pope.
5Icho.-A game of duplicity was being played on both
Attemptsto sides. By constantly referring to the reluctance of
convert the
'in. the Pope to grant the dispensation, Olivares, no
doubt, hoped to terrify Charles into the hoped-for conversion,
whilst, at the salne time, if lie found his religious convictions
to be unassailable, he was preparing him for the announcement
that the Pope had refused to grant the dispensation. Charles,
on the other hand, instead of meeting the difficulty in the face,
was inclined to temporise, thinking it good policy to allow
hopes to be entertained which he never intended to realise.
Not long after his arrival, he threw away a splendid opportunity
of clearing his position. Olivares was talking to him about his
grandmother. The Queen of Scots, lie said, had suffered for
 i.e. the junta at Madrid.
- "As for myself, if that were yet the question, I would with all nay
heart give nay consent that the Bishop of Ronae should have the first seat.
I being a Western King, would go with the Patriarch of the "Vest. And
for his temporal pincipality over the Signores of Rome, I do not quarrel
at either. Let him, in God's name, be 2rimus iiscopus inter omnes
]'tffscolos, et 2rinces scoortm, so it be no otherwise but as St. Peter
wastSrinces Mtostoh,rum. '' The Kirg to the Prince and Buckingham,
March 5, [Iardzvh-ke S. P. i. 4I I.

162 3 BRISTOL'S IIIISTAKE. t7
the true faith, and her blood which had been shed would not
cease to cry to heaven till her children who came after her
were brought back to a knowledge of the faith. Instead of
taking the chance, thus thrown i_n his way, of stating plainly
what his religious position was, Charles affected in his reply to
treat the whole matter as a mere historical question, and offered
to show the Spaniard a portrait of his grandmother, and to
enlighten him on SOlne points relating to her execution, l
The Spanish ministers were much perplexed. At last they
came to the conclusion that Charles was afraid of Bristol.
Gondomar accordingly undertook to remove the obstacle, and
adjured the alnbassador llOt to hinder the pious work of the
Prince's conversion, to which, as he said, Buckingham was
ready to give his aid. Bristol, knowing what the common
rulnour was, and having no doubt noticed the Prince's de-
portment, accepted Gondolnar's account without difiqculty,
little drealning that his mistake would one day be imputed to
him as a crime. Going straight to the Prince, he asked him
Bristol's con- with what object he had come to Spain. "You
versation know as well as I," answered Charles, briefly. "Sir,"
with the
'rinc. said Bristol, who was too much a man of the world
to be surprised at anything, "servants can never serve their
masters industriously unless they know their meanings fu||y.
Give me leave, therefore, to tell you what they say in the
town is the cause of your coming : That you mean to change
your religion, and to declare it here.' I do not speak thts
that I will persuade you to do it, or that I will promise you
to follow your example, though you will do it. But, as your
faithful servant, if you will trust me with so great a secret, I
will endeavour to carry it the discreetest way I can." By ths
time Charles began to show signs of vexation, hardly knowing,
perhaps, how much he was himself to blame for the suspicions
to which he had given rise. " I wonder," he broke in, in-
dignantly, "what you have ever found in me that you shou!d
conceive I would be so base and unworthy as for a wife to
change my religion." Bristol replied that he hoped he would
t Yramisco de esus, 57- Compare Roa's narrative in the Appendix,
25.

63 C03ffEIVTS OF THE IVUNCIO. -"
letter written in x62o.  James was ready to promise that the
Catholics should not be persecuted, and that they should not be
meddled with as long as they confined their religious observances
to their private houses. It was possible that time might bring
them further advantages, but, for the present, nothing more
could be done.
With this reply, Olivares betook himself to the junta of the
Council of State for English affairs, a committee
It is com-
municatedto which had recently been formed by excluding the
the u,cio, ecclesiastics who had taken part in the original junta
to which the marriage articles had been shmitted. From it
he received authority to consult the Nuncio on the subject.
It is better to see many things clearly than to be a man of one
idea; but a sharp-sighted ecclesiastic, like De Massimi, possesses
an undeniable advantage over a shifty politician like Olivares.
What Olivares wanted might vary at any moment, according as
the danger of offending the Emperor, or the danger of offending
the King of England, was uppermost in his mind. The Nuncio's
object was ever the same. To the Infanta's feelings, and to
the impending bankruptcy of the Spanish monarchy, he was
entirely callous. All he wanted tc know, as each proposition
was brought before him, was, how far it would conduce to the
ho raises extension of his Church. Under his scrutiny, there-
objections, fore, it is not to be wondered at if ]3uckingham's
proposal was weighed and found wanting. The Pope, he told
Olivares, would do everything for the King of Spain that his
honour and conscience would permit, but the decision had
been entrusted to the Congregation of Cardinals, and it must
be some very extraordinary cause which would move the Pope
to set aside the resolution which they had taken. For his part,
he thought that, unless liberty of worship were accorded, the
dispensation would not be granted. If James did not choose
to render real and effective service to the Catholics at a moment
when he was so eager to gain the Pope's consent to the marriage,
it was vain to expect his good-will at a future time. Was it not
ground for suspicion that he acknowledged that he was afraid
of his own subjects, and that he was unable to induce them t
 See Vol. I II. p. 346.

t6 3

AN E.VGLISI[ FORTRESS DEIIIA2rDED. z

ter hurried back to Buckingham, who at once made short work
Rejection of of the proposal. The circumstances of the French
the proposa| Huguenots and of the English Catholics, he said,
by Bucking-
hm. were not the same. When the strong places were
granted to the Protestants in France, it was done as a lneans of
obtaining peace from a powerful body, which not only had the
fortresses already in its possession, but was well able to keep
.them. The English Catholics were in a very different case.
Living a retired and tilnid life in private, they had no lollowing
in the kingdoln. The King could find no pretext to submit
the proposition just made to Parliament. If Olivares thought
of bringing forward any such demands as these, it would save
trouble if he understood at once that they would not even be
taken into consideration. 1
Olivares saw that he had made a mistake. He
It is with-
dr,,.n US' threw the blaine of all that he had said upon the
O|i-,res. Nuncio, and assured Buckingham that he would write
at once to the Pope to hasten the dispensation. 
Everything now appeared, to Buckingham's inexperienced
eye, to be going on smoothly. On March eS, he
l[arch 5.
received from Olivares an engagement that no time
should be lost in making preparations for the Infanta's journey. 
March27. Two days afterwards, his Majesty's humble and
Satisfaction obedient son and servant, Charles, and his humble
of Bucking-
ham. slave and dog, Steenie, were able to send home still
more favourable news. "We think it not amiss," they wrote,

t ,, II. Corte di Olivares riport6 il penslero a Buckingham, qual mara-
vigliendosene, esplicossi che non concorrea in parit di case 1o succeduto
nella Francia con quello che si rJcercava deliberare il R suo Sggnore,
perch la consegnatione deile Piazze a quelli della Religione Reformata fu
.da stimolo et da desiderio di quiete del Regno, perch si ritrovavano
armati in furore, et con acquisti di Piazze ; cosa che non era de" Cattolici
.in Inghilterra, che nascosti, timidi, et senza alcuna existimatione viveano ;
onde che il R, non havendo pretesto, non ardirebbe porter nel Parlamento
gimil propositione ; manifestando al Conde che, quando si pretendesse di
nuovo queste dimande, si poteva riputar caduta e svanita qualunque trattica,
ancorche avanti si trovasse." 1.'enice IISS. Dest. Spagna. 
s The Prince and Buckingham to the King, March zS, lrarL 3ISS.
6987 fol. 44.

1623 OLIVARES .AND THE h'UNCIO. 25
That the secret was not commumcated to the majority of
the Spanish ministers there can be little doubt. It was a private
Oi,,ares' arrangement between the favourite and the King.
anxiety Knowing what was impending, Olivares, constant to
about the
Palatinate. his original policy, began to show renewed anxiety on
the subject of the Palatinate. The war with England which,
in any case, was probable enough, would be inevitable unless he
could manage to smooth matters down in Germany. The news
of the actual transference of the Electorate had by
Hi conver-
sation with this time reached },Iadrid, and Buckingham had been
theg,ncio, speaking warmly about it. Olivares hurried to the
Nuncio, begging him to urge the Pope to put forward his
influence in favour of peace, and to invent some scheme by
which the Catholic religion might be promoted, and the promise
given by the King of Spain to James in favour of his son-in-law
might be at the same time fulfilled. The best thing, he said,
would be that the Emperor should deposit the whole of the
Lower Palatinate in the hands of the Infanta Isabella, with a
view to its restitution either to Frederick or to his son. He
hoped that the Emperor would give an express engagement that
after },Iaximilian's death the Electorate should return either to
the Count Palatine or to the young Prince, leaving, however,
the selection between the two an open question, till it was
known what were the final wishes of the King of England.
Olivares was now to learn once more how little a Roman
ecclesiastic cared for the interests of Spain apart from the in-
terests of the Church. De lX, lassimi answered coldly that the
Pope would doubtless do everything in his power to keep up a
good understanding between the Emperor and the King of
Spare, but that it would never do to treat the new Elector of
Bavaria with disrespect. It would be well if Oflate received
instructions to congratulate him on his advancement. 
Two or three days after this interview the subject came on

de' principali negotii che portasse il Duca di Pastrana." Soranza and Zen
to the Doge, July , 'otice l[SS. Desp. Roma. Compare note to p. 32,
and the extract from Zen's former despatch quoted at Vol. IV. p. 395.
larch 7
 Corner to the Doge, -ff, ','nice ISS. Desp. Spagna.

THE JOURA'EY TO JIADRID. CH. XLIII,

It is only by conjecture that we can penetrate the secret
feelings of Philip when he learned that the long intrigue had
finally broken down, and that the Pope had refused to stand
between his sister and her unwelcome lover. The only symp-
tom of his agitation which came to the surface was one more
desperate attempt to convert the Prince. A third theological
discussion, in which Charles himself was to take part, was fixed
for the evening of April 2 3 .
That day, St. George's Day, the Prince and Buckingham
dined in state. Some weeks before, his father, in one of his
st. George's garrulous letters, had encouraged them to keep the
Y- festival of the patron of England with unusual mag-
nificence. " I sent you," he wrote, "your robes of the order,
which ye must not forget to wear on St. George's Day, and
dine together in them, if they can come in time, which I pray
God they may, for it will be a goodly sight for the Spaniards
to see my two boys dine in them." The Spaniards, however,
did not appear to appreciate the display, x They had been
thoroughly disgusted by Buckingham's proceedings with respect
to the religious conferences, and they now began to take it for
granted that it was by his arts that the Prince's conversion had
been hindered. Before the day ended a violent quarrel had
broken out between the English favourite and Don Fernando
(;iron, a member of the Council of State, and the angry dis-
putants were only pacified by an assurance that the misunder-
standing had been caused by the ignorance of an interpreter.
As soon as the evening came, Charles and Buckingham
were carried off to the appointed conference. The King him-
self accompanied them to the place, though he with-
Another
religious drew immediately on the plea that it was unfit for
discussion.
a King of Spain to listen to a single word directed
against his religion.
One friar had been thought sufficient to confront Bucking-
ham. No less than four were summoned to convince the
]'rince. For some minutes after Charles had taken his seat,
there was complete silence. At last one of the friars asked

Corner to the Doge, May o Venice MSS. Desp. Spagna.
0 

tS" 3 MRRIUAL OF THE DISPENSATIO,V. 37
there, that God and man may see ye are not ashamed of you1
religion. But I hope in God this shall not need." "
No doubt there was enough of folly in the idea that it was
possible to make a Protestant service palatable to the Spaniards;
but there are few persons of upright minds who will not prefer
the folly of the father to the prudence of the son.
James's plan for exhibiting what he considered to be a
service 'decent and agreeable to the purity of the Prince's
English Church, and yet as near the Roman form as can
service pro- lawfully be done,'  was never carried into execution.
hibited in
the Royat Olivares sent for Cottington, and told him plainly
V,,ee. that any attempt of the chaplains to exater the Royal
Palace would be resisted by force.  Against this intimation
Charles was powerless. Once, indeed, it appears, in a moment
of pique, Buckinghma caused Charles to attend the ministra-
tions of his religion in Bristol's house; but the practice was
not continued, and a month later, in the instructions given to
Cottington when he was about to return to England, the Prince
charged him ' to give his Majesty satisfaction in that Iris High-
ness hath not had the exercise of his religion in hearing
sermons.' 4
On April 24 the dispensation was placed in the hands of
the Nuncio at Madrid, accompanied by a letter to Philip from
The dispen- the Pope, exhorting him to do everything in his power
sation in the for the advantage of the Catholic religion in Eng-
hands of the
,,,io. land, and by secret instructions in which the Nuncio
was recommended to urge the concession of complete freedom
of worship. He was also informed that the dispensation was
oth re- absolutely null tdl the King of Spain had sworn that
quired of the King of England would perform his obligations,
Philip.
and would obtain the consent of the Privy Council
and the Parliament to the articles, and had engaged that he

 The King to the Prince and Buckingham, April 7, Goodman's Court
of [ling ames, ii. 297.
2 The King to the Prince and Buckingham, March I7, Irardwicke
$ /'. i. 46.
 trrancico de esus, 59.
 Instructions to Cottington, May 21, Claren&,n S. '. i. App. xvili.

$8 THE JOURNEY TO JltlDRID. c. XLIIL
would himself keep his fleets ready to enforce at any time the
execution of the treaty. 
That Olivares should object strongly to such a startling de-
mand, as derogatory to the honour of his master, was natural
Quarrel b- enough ; but the Nuncio simply referred to his
tween Buck- orders, and the Spanish minister was forced to in-
ingharn and
o,,ar, form the Prince of Wales how matters stood. The
reception with which he met, as may well be supposed, was not
a favourable one. The alterations made at Rome in the articles
themselves were by no means unimportant. The age at which
the education of the children by their mother was to cease was
now fixed at twelve ; whilst James had only expressed his
willingness, as an extreme concession, to go as far as ten.
The Infanta's church, it was again required, was to be open
to all, and the oath drawn up by the Pope for her servants
was to be substituted in the case of every English Catholic
for that oath of allegiance which had been settled by Act
of Parliament. After these demands, the question of the
King of Spain's oath, excepting so far as it led to fresh
claims, was in reality unimportant. The articles themselves
were utterly incompatible with James's notion that he was about
to grant favours to his Catholic subjects of his own free grace.
For a sovereign to agree with a foreign power to set aside the
laws is to sign away the independence of his crown, whatever
-may be the form in which the concession is couched ; and the
Pope's demand that Philip should become a guarantee for
James's conduct, and should hold himself in readiness to en-
force the execution of his engagements, merely ripped away the
veil from the ill-concealed monstrosity behind.
The meeting between Olivares and Buckingham was a stormy
one, and for two days after it the favourites refused even to
speak to one another. By the English it was alleged that when
the Prince came to Madrid he did not expect to be asked to
make fresh concessions. They were answered that the Prince
had come of his own accord ; that, if Gondomar had spoken
to him on the subject, he had done so merely as a private

Francisco de eesus 64.

to23 PROPOSED RETENTION OF T_G'E INFANT.-1. 
it is not obligatory on them in conscience, especially as oaths
to the contrary have been made, and legally established, in
so many Parliaments ; it is therefore to be supposed that
everything that is now offered is only done in order to obtain
the marriage, for if, though the King desires it so much, he can
do no more than this, and if we are told that the people may
become so unruly at his mere condescension to a simple con-
nivance that it may be impossible for him to do even this, how
can it be argued that. after the marriage is over, either the King
or the Prince will wish to preserve, or to favour, in their king-
doms a religion which they consider in their conscience to be
contrary to their own ? And so little power have they, accord-
ing to their own public acknowledgment, that even with the
best wishes of the King and the Prince, they cannot introduce
the free exercise of religion now. How, then, is it to be sup-
posed that they will do it after the marriage ? "
If he could hear that either the King or Prince were likely
to become Catholic, Olivares went on to say, it would be a
different thing ; as it was, it was impossible to trust their mere
word. Let us propose to them to celebrate the marriage at
once ; but let us at the same time inform them that the Infanta
must remain here till we see them act as well as talk. When
the release of the Catholics from the penal laws is accepted by
the Coun-il, and confirmed by Parliament; when offices of
trust are placed in the hands of declared Catholics, then, and
not till then, it will be safe to allow the Infanta to go. For by
this means the Catholics would increase in number and strength,
so that it would no longer be in the King's power to depress
them again. He would then be oLliged to temporise, and
perhaps even to adopt their religion for his own safety. 
In the Council of State Olivares found himself alone. It
was not that the other ministers were less desirous to impose
their own religion upon a foreign nation, but that they under-
rated the difficulties in their way. The idea of securing tolera-
tion for their co-religionists in England was utterly foreign
to their minds. They wanted supremacy for their Church,

 2rancisco de tcsus, 66- 1.

1623 OPLVION OF II'ILLIM]IS. 45
considerable alleviation of the condition of the English Catho-
lics. That he had been led step by step to offer more than
this is certain; but it is no less certain that he had never
intended to bargain for the opening of a public church, and
still less to enter into any discussion about the abolition of the
penal laws, a question which, as he well knew, it was useless to
noot in the presence of the House of Commons, and which he
would himself have been indisposed to consider, regarding, as
he did, the retention of the power of putting those laws in
force as a safeguard against possible disloyalty.
"Do you think," said James to Williams, " that this knight-
errant pilgrimage will be lucky to win the Spanish lady and to
Con,.er- convey her shortly into England ?" " Sir," replied
,ionbetw the Lord Keeper, "if my Lord Marquis will give
James and
Williams. honour to the Cdunt Duke Olivares ; or if Olivares
will show honourab!e civility to nay Lord Marquis, remembering
he is a favourite of England, the wooing may be prosperous ;
but if nay Lord Marquis should forget where he is, and not
stoop to Olivares ; or if Olivares, forgetting what guest he hath
received with the Prince, bear himself haughtily and like a
Castilian grandee to nay Lord Marquis, the provocation may be
dangeroas to cross your Majesty's good intentions."  The
observation, shrewd as, like most of Williams's recorded sayings,
it undoubtedly was, was only superficial. 13uckingham's temper,
however exasperating to those who had to deal with him, was
very far from being the cause of the ultimate failure of the
negotiation. What the Spaniards wanted was to accomplish
by intrigue what Philip II. had failed to accomplish b'! force,
namely, to make England once more a Roman Catholic coun-
try. Gondomar and Olivares might differ as to the means to
be used, but there was no difference as to the end. And yet,
with the evidence of this before his eyes, Charles could see
nothing but the lovely vision of his hoped-for bride. For
months he lingered at Madrid, sacrificing his country to his
love--making promises, into the full meaning of which he did
not care to inquire, and satisfying himself with the prospect
of being able to, explain them away, if at any time they should
) Ilacke/,   5.

1623 THE POPE If'RITES TO CHARLES. 49
King of Spain of the House of Austria--A'ex Auslri, as it
stood in the Vulgate--for giving his daughter in marriage to
the King of the North. Under these circumstances, Philip
hesitated and drew back, waiting to see what relief the Junta
Theologians would bring.
Even this rebuff could not cure Charles of his incorrigible
habit of holding out hopes which he had no intention of
A letter from gratig-ing. When the Nuncio presented him with a
the Pope letter from the Pope, in which he was exhorted to
presented to
tSharle, return to the true Church, he not only spoke
spectfully of the writer, but he added that, although he could
not listen to any theological discussion now, he would be
willing to hear anything as soon as the marriage was over. 
In the written answer which he returned to the Pope, he
expressed himself in more guarded terms. Yet eveu this
contrasts most unfavourably with the letter which had been
written a few months previously by his father. James had
The Prince's urged the Pope not to allow difference of religion to
,,,.,,-e. stand in the way of a common understanding for the
re-establishment of the peace of Christendom. Charles talked
of those diNerences as the seed sown by the inveterate malice
of Satan, and promised to employ all his energies in effectit, g
a reconciliation in the Church. So far, he said, was he from
feeling any abhorrence for the Roman Catholic religion, that
he would take every opportunity, with the help of time, to
remove all sinister suspicions, 'so that as we all publicly con-
fess one undivided Trinity, and one Christ crucified, we may
unite with one mind in one only faith, and in one Church.'
If Charles only meant that he looked forward to the establish-
 Corner to the Doge, May 2 , May -- l/'eMce AISS. Desp. Spagna.
24  2 7 Ju-e 3 '
Corner's authority is quite good enough, and is not invalidated by the fact
that there is no mention of the engagement to listen to discussion in the
answer as given in Goodmat, ii. z6o. Charles may have said it in con-
versation ater the formal reply was given.
: The Prince to Gregory XV., ITraalT,icbe S. P. i. 45 z. The letter,
contrary to tl;e general belief in England at the time, was written either by
the Prince himself, or by his direcAon, without an)" reference to his father.
See the letter of J une 6, 11aniwhke & 1: i. 419.
VOL. V.

$o THIY 3I..4RRL-'tGE CO.VTR..4CT. c4. Xl.JV.
ment of a re-united Church, such as that which De l)ominis
had lately advocated to unwelcome ears, why did he not say so,
c:cept because, though he objected to a downright falsehood,
he had no objection to an equivocation? Of all men who
have expressed an opinion on Charles's actions, surely no one
was so likely to form a favourable judgment of them as Claren-
don, and yet it was from that statesman, at a time when he was
in exile for his devotion to his sovereign, that the bitterest
condemnation of this letter proceeded. "The letter to the
]'ope," he wrote to Sir Edward Nicholas, " is, by your favour,
more than compliment, and may be a warning that nothing is
to be done and said in that nice argument but what ill bear
the light."
.kt last, on May 3, the Junta of Theologians pronounced
its senteDce. They held that if Philip was to take the oath
with a good conscience, the Inlnta must remain in
May 3.
Dcio,, of Spain tbr at least a year ater the marriage ceremony
the Theo-
logians to had been performed ; within which time the suspen-
keep thel,,fanta for a sion of the penal laws, and the concession to the
Y" Catholics of the fiee exercise of their religion in
private houses, must be publicly proclaimed in England. The
King, the l'rince, and the Privy Council must swear that the
lhvours thus accorded would never be withdrawn : and, finally,
they.must manage either to obtain the assent of l'arliament
within the year to what they had done, or at least they must
have proceeded so far that there could no longer be any doubt
that it would not be refused.
Olivares had his way, without violence or menace. In the
face of the opposition of the Council he had summoned to his
aid the Junta of Theologians.
In the hands of the Spaniah minister, these learned canonists
atad di'ines now occupied the place which had been previously
assigned to the Pope. From them came the demands to
Which it might well be thought even Charles would find it
impossible to agree. It was now the turn of Olivares to ex-
press his regret fc,r the decision taken, at the same time that
he announced the necessity of conforming to whatever it might
be. In the presence of a bold and decided politician, with

I23 2VXIETY OF JIES. 7
Infanta at once ; and, above all, the suggestion that Charles
might remain a year longer at Madrid, pielced hma
ames begs
i.onto tO the heart. That very night he poured out his
return ; grief. " My sweet boys," he wrote, "your letter by
Cottington hath strucken me dead. I fear it shall very much
shorten my days ; and I am the more perplexed that I know
not how to satisfy the people's expectation here ; neither know
I what to say to our Council for the fleet that stayed upon a
wind this fortnight. Rutland, and all aboard, must now be
stayed, and I know not what reason I shall pretend for the
doing of it. But as for my advice and directions that ye crave,
in case the), will not alter their decree, it is, in a word, to come
speedily away if ye can get leave, and give over all treaty. And
this I speak without respect of any security they can offer you,
except ye never look to see your old dad again, whom I fear  e
shall never see, if you see him not before winter. Alas ! I now
repent me sore that ever I suffered you to go aw,qy. I care for
match, nor nothing, so I may once have you in nay arms again.
God grant it! God grant it! God grant it! Amen, Amen,
Amen. I protest ye shall be as heartily welcome as if ye had
done all things ye went for, so that I may once have you in mv
arms again, and God bless you both, nay only sweet son, and
my only best sweet servant : and let me hear from you quickly
with all speed, as ye love nay life. And so God send you a
happy and joyful meeting in the arms of your dear dad." l
The next day James had time to look into the affair with
greater deliberation. For two hours he was closeted with
Cottington and Conway. But it was the tenderness
but engages
to connrm of a father, not the regret of a statesman, which was
the articles,
uppermost in his mind. Of the hard terms which
the Spaniards were exacting, of the impolicy of the concessions
which were wrung from him, he had not a word to say. If the
Spanish ministers, he now wrote, could not ' be moved to
reverse the conclusion of their devils,' he would confirm the
articles as they came from them. Charles might then be
married at once, and come away immediately upon receiving
 The King to the Prince and Buckingham, June 4, Hardwicke S. t .
li. 4.

THE, 3IARRIM GE CONTRACT. CH. XLIV.

security that the Infanta would follow in due time with her
portion. He need not be afraid to marry her, he went on to
say, lest they should afterwards ' free her by a dispensation
from the Pope.' " For," he explained, "I will warrant you our
Church shall free you better here; and I am resolved, if God
shall spare me days, to become a Master Jack Cade myself,
and the great governor of the mutineers in England. For, be-
lieve me, I can turn myself in an)" shape but that of a knave,
in case of necessity." 
" His Majesty," wrote Conway at the same time to his
patron, " desires your speed)" return before all other respects,
and your honour's counsel. He presseth you to admit of no
delays. If his Majesty ratify the articles propounded, and the
King and Council of Spain will not recede from the forced and
devised delay of the Junta, you must apparel necessity like
virtue, and make choice of continuing the treaty, by according
to their time for the solenmising of the marriage in all the
requisite parts by proxy, as is used in marriage of most kings
and princes ; or by his Highness espousing of her personally,
and presently to come thence to give life and being to the per-
formance and execution of the things contracted, which will
not, cannot, in his Highness's absence be executed. There is
vothing can be of so evil consequence as admittance of delay.
I ,rotest my heart cannot think that the worst of men, or better
sort of devils, could practise so base and monstrous falsehood
and unthankfulness as to stop his Highness' return." 
Never were the evils of personal government presented in
a clearer form. Neither James nor Conway appear to have
bestowed one thought upon the English nation.
iX'o thought
foth Never, since the days of Pandulph had there been
nation.
so gross a violation of its independence as these
articles contained. The rights, and it might be the religion, of
the country were to be sacrificed for the sake of securing the
safe return of a headstrong young man who was really in no

* The King to the Prince and Buckingham, June I5, S. P. Siain.
Compare Instructions to Cottington, May 28, Clarendon S. t . App xviii.
.2 Conway to BuckingF, am, June 15, Goodman's Court of X'ing fftames
ii. 29L

6o

THE 3IARRIAGE CO,VTIdACT. on. xtv.

whom he had accused of placing too great trust in Spanish
promises. Like so many others, he was to find that, though
there was no difficulty whatever in instilling the most pernicious
advice into the mind of Charles, it was very difficult to lead him
right. Charles would not hear of breaking off the treaty. His
state of mind, indeed, was most miserable. He no longer took
pleasure in amusements of any description ; he spent his time,
whenever he had a chance, in gazing upon the Infanta ;--Olivares
sarcastically said, as a cat watches a mouse ;--he wrote verses
in her praise, which, if she ever cared to read them, she would
need an interpreter to understand ; and was frequently seen
stretching forward out of the 'indow of his own apartment, in
the hope of catching sight of her as she was sitting in her room. 
Olivares was playing with Charles as an angler plays with
a salmon. He had, indeed, a difficult part to act. Again and
Intentions of again voices were raised in the Council of State
Olivares. against the folly of exasperating the Prince in deference
to a pack of theologians x'ho knew nothing about State affairs.
Gondomar declared himself on the side of a policy of confid-
ence. " But Olivares knew his ground. Sure of the support of
the King, he never ceased to screen himself behind the authority
of the Junta. With a grave face, he informed Charles that he
was doing his best to change the opinion of the Theologians. 3
There can be no doubt that if the general voice of the
English Catholics had been listened to, Gondomar's opinion
would have prevailed. Sir Toby Matthew, the sharp-witted
and intelligent son of the Archbishop of York, who had lost
his father's favour by his desertion to the Church of Rome,
was now in ,ladrid, having been despatched by Williams with
the hope of inducing the Spanish ministers to listen to reason. 4

a "Non sta mirando se non la Infanta, et con ogni licentia neila con-
$pieua piazza si facea fuori della sua finestra per colpire con l'occhio in
quella dove ella sedea, sfogando poi anco al solito delle inamoratile fiamme
in versi." Venice .ISS. Desp. Spagna.
* Consulta of the Council of State, June 5 Sittattcas 3[SS. 2516 , J'ol. 39-
Juy 5 
Corner to the Doge, July , 'nice IS: Desp. Spagna.
 The Prince azd Buckingham to the King, June 6, Irardwicke S. 2 .
i. 122. ' ttacket, .

! 623 .4.1It?.S COATS UI. TS I I "ILLI.4.1IS. 6 
matters took a serious turn. Yet how could he now go back ?
In an evil moment he had pledged his honour that he would
confirm whatever promises his son might make; and even if
he could be brought to understand that it was better that he
should break his word than that be should inflict so serious a
wound upon the nation entrusted to his care, he could not
forget that his son's liberty might depend upon his decision.
In common with ahnost everyone witl-, whom he conversed on
the subject, he fully believed that if the articles were now re-
jected the Prince would never be allowed to leave Madrid.
It was, therefore, with a heavy heart that James summoned
his principal councillors to meet him at Wanstead on July 13,
and after laying his perplexities before them, left them
July 3.
The to consider the advice which they might decide upon
principal
councillors giving him. He had no sooner quitted the room
consulted, than it became evident that they, too, shared in his
perplexity. Long unaccustomed to be asked by their hitherto
self-sufficient monarch to take a decisive step in a matter of
such importance, they were unwilling to incur responsibility,
and scarcely one of them could think ot anything better to
suggest than some scheme or other for getting the Prince out
of Spain before the oath was taken.
Never was the extraordinary ability with which Williams
managed to smooth away a difficulty which he did not attempt
ad,-;of to overcome more conspicuously exhibited than on
Williams. this occasion. It can hardly be doubted that he saw
that James was only looking out for an excuse to yield, and
that the opinion which he delivered was influenced by this
supposition. After what they had heard from the King, he
said, he did not see how they could give any advice at all,
for they must first know whether his Majesty had conscien-
tious scruples against the oath. Until they had received in-
formation on that point, they could not tell what to recom-
mend. The councillors, glad to relieve themselves from the
responsibility of advising the King either to act against his
conscience or to leave his son a prisoner for life, leapt at
Williams's suggestion, and replied, as soon as James returned,
by asking whether he felt any conscientious scruples. "lly
VOL V.

72 THE
of the gospel, that your Majesty who hath often defended and
learnedly written against those wicked heresies, should now
show yourself a patron of those doctrines which your pen hath
told the world, and your conscience tells yourself, are super-
stitious, idolatrous, and detestable. Also what you have done
in sending the Prince, without consent of your council, and
the privity and approbation of your people. For although, sir,
you have a large interest in the Prince, as the son of 3'our flesh,
yet have your people a greater, as a son of the kingdom, upon
whom, uext after your Majesty, are their eyes fixed, and their
welfare depends. And so slenderly is his going apprehended
that, believe it, sir, however his return may be safe, yet the
drawers of him into that action so dangerous to himself, so
desperate to the kingdom, will not pass away unquestioned and
unpunished.
" Besides, this toleration you endeavour to set up by your
proclamation, it cannot be done without a Parliament, unless
)'our Majesty will let your subjects see that you now take unto
yourself a libertyto throw down the laws of the land at your
pleasure. What dreadful consequences these things may draw
after, I beseech )'our Majesty to consider, and above all, lest
by this, the toleration and discountenance of the true profes-
sion of the gospel, wherewith God hath blessed us, and under
which the kingdom hath flourished these many years, your
Majesty doth draw upon the kingdom in general, and yourself
in particular, God's 'heavy wrath and indignation.
" Thus, in discharge of nay duty to your Majesty, and the
place of my calling, I have taken the humble boldness to
deliver my conscience. And now, sir, do with me what you
please." l
The letter was at once disavowed by Abbot to the King, 
I)isavowed and attempts were made to discover the author.
by Abbot. When these proved unavailing, some dissatisfaction
was expressed at Court with the Archbishop, who appears to have
t Printed with the name of the Archbishop of 'ork, Cabala, IO8.
2 Yalaresso to the Doge, .Aug. _z 'enice vanscri]Sts" This shows
that the letter must have been vritten in July. Mrs. Green places it con-
ecturally under the date of Aug.

t6-3 Ttt P4L4 TIA'4 T 4 G4IN. 7
been backward in making public his disavowal. It is possible,
indeed, that he was uuwilling to make a statement which could
hardly fail to be accolnpanied with something like a renuncia-
tion of the opinions which the letter contained ; and there can
be little doubt that, however much he had lately withdrawn
himself from opposition to James, he continued to nourish those
sentiments which had been put forward in his name. However
this may have been, it is certain that, whether the forger had
accurately adopted the ideas of the Archbishop or not, he had
felicitously expressed the thoughts of the great majority of the
people of England.
Meanwhile James was doing his best to make light of what
he had done. In the letter which, on July 2i, the day after
he had taken the oaths, he wrote to his son and his
James com-
plains of the favourite, he had a word.to say in praise of the
which expense he to expected compliance of Pembroke and Abbot, but
,.nl be p,t. n.othing about that of which everyone else was talking.
His thoughts were running upon the expense to which he was
likely to be put by the delay in the Infanta's voyage. " Since
it can be no better," he wrote, " I must be contented ; but
this course is both a dishonour to me, and double charges
if I must send two fleets. But if they will not send her till
March, let them, in God's name, send her by their own fleet ;
and forget not to make them keep their former conditions
anent the portion, otherwise both nay Baby and I are bankrupts
for ever." Other matters of infinitely greater importance were
passed over in far fewer words. "This bearer," he informed
his son, " will bring you power to treat for the Palatinate, and
the matter of Holland." 1
The wretched affair of the Palatinate was at this moment
more hopelessly entangled than ever. Ahnost the first thing
5ah. which James had been called upon to do, after his
Resumption son had left him, was to open negotiations with
of negotia-
tions with Coloma and Boischot for the sequestration of Frank-
the Infanta
saben. enthal, which were to be followed by an agreement
for a suspension of arms, to prepare the way for a congress
 The King to the Prince and Buckingham, July , Hardwicke S.
i. 428.

74 TIIE AIARRIAGE COVY'RACT.
to discuss the final terms of peace in the Empire. Com-
missioners wcrc appointed to treat, and the first conference
was held on Marcia 3 . Their discussions had not proceeded
far when the news of the transference of the Electorate reached
England, and the Commissioners at once wrote to the King.
" c cannot," they said, "with our duties, but hmnbly deliver
our opinions unto your Majesty, that, as things now stand, wc
hold it most dishonourablc for you, and unworthy your greatness,
to hearken to any further treaty of the suspension of arms."
Being asked to reconsider their advice, they repeated it more
emphatically than before. Frankenthal, they said, had better
be delivered to the Infanta on any terms that could bc had, in
order to keep it out of the hands of the Duke of Bavaria. But
a suspension of arms would only serve to ruin the Protestants
of Germauy. Nor were the men who unanimously tendered
this advice by any means partisans of ither side. Together
with the names of Pembroke and Hamilton, of Chic.hester, and
of Viscount Grandison, who as Sir Oliver St. John, had suc-
ceeded Chichester in Ireland, appeared those of Arundel, of
Middlesex, of Calvert, and of Weston. 
As might be expected, however, the protest of the Com-
missioners went for nothing. The treaty of sequestration was
Sequestra- signed on March 9- Frankenthal was to be placedin
tio of the hands of the Infanta Isabella for eighteen months.
Frankenthal.
If at the end of that time no reconciliation had been
effected between Frederick and the Emperor, an English garri-
son was to be re-admitted. In the meanwhile the religious
,orship of the inhabitants was to be secured from attack. *
The treaty was carried into immediate execution. On April 14,
the Spanish commander, Verdugo, entered the town, and Sir
John Borough, with his garrison, prepared to march out with
the honours of war.
The treaty for a suspension of arms was the next to follow.

 The Commissioners for the Treaty to the King, March 3, S. /'. G,-
"-' The Commissioners to the King, March 6, S. t . Germany.
z The Commissioners to the King, llarch 9, ibid.
 Treaty of Sequestration, March 9, ibid.

I623 BATTLE OF STADTLO0. 77
States-General of the Netherlands, should agree, in loving nnion
with Christian and Mansfeld, to fight out the quarrel vhich he
had done more than any living man to embitter. Of course
all this was but a dream. The Lutheran Princes may have
been sluggish and unwarlike. The), may have cared quite as
much about the security of their domains as they cared about
their religion. But if one thing was clearer than another, it was
that they detested the armies of freebooters which Frederick was
ready, without the slightest compunction, to pour over Germany,
far more than they detested the Emperor's treatment of their
fellow-Protestants in Bohemia and the Palatinate. A meeting
of the two Protestant Electors ended in nothing lnore than a
resolution to levy troops enough to lmtect their own territories
from invasion. A meeting of the States of Lower Saxony ended
in an ahnost similar lnanner. From all this, however, Frederick
learned nothing. He had not indeed much to expect froln
Mansfeld, who was not likely to quit his comfortable quarters
in East Friesland as long as anything relnained to phmder ; but
from Christian he hoped great things, q'hat headlong warrior
Christian of had been taken 1111.O pay by his brother the Duke of
Brunswick. Brunswick, and eflilts had been made, not without
success, to obtain his pardon fi'om the Emperor. But all the
while his head had been teeming with vaster projects. Cover-
ing himself with the negotiations for a pardon, he intended to
wait till Bethlen Gabor was ready to move. He would then
throw himself suddenly upon Silesia, and before their-joint
efforts Bohemia and Moravia would once more be snatched
from the House of Austria.
These wild plans received a sudden check. The Elector
of Saxony prudently refused to Christian and his men permis-
sion to pass through his dominions,  and the Circle
July 7-
-tdo of lower Saxony ordered them not to presume to
s-atoo, make its territories the seat of war. Christian knew
that Tilly was approaching, and his first thought was to throw
himself upon the enemy. He succeeded in obtaining an ad-
vantage over a detachment of Tilly's forces. The old general,
 Frederick to Bethlen Gabor, June 7, July 3. Nethersole to Calvert.
July I, S. 2 . Gowaty.

,6"-3 THE DUNKIRKERS AND THE DUTCH. 79
negotiations, but that it would now be necessary to consult the
Emperor afresh.
Such were the resu!ts of the divergent efforts of James and
'rhepro- Frederick during the smnmer of I623. it would be
posed attack strange, indeed, if Charles at Madrid were able to
upon the
I)utch. reduce the chaos into order.
It might be thought that in his treatment of the affairs of
Germany James had done his worst ; but, in dealing with the
other difficulty to which he had referred in his letter of July zi, z
he had strayed even farther from the paths of common sense.
It might we!l have been SUl)posed that after the final settlement
of the long disputes between the two East Indian Companies,
nothing more would have been heard of that senseless project
for a joint invasion of the free Netherlands by Spain and Eng
land. Yet it was this very project which James chose to revive
at the critical moment when he was talking of engaging in a
Continental war, unless the Emperor gave his consent to aban-
don all the advantages which he had gained during so many
weary years.
The renewal of the war between Spain and Holland had
been accoml)anied by the imposition of a strict blockade upon
TeWem the Flemish ports. Deprived of all share in the
privateers. commercial enterprise upon which their northern
kinsmen were thriving, the seafaring populations of Dunkirk
and Ostend gave themselves up to privateering. The swift-
sailing vessels which from time to time contrived to slip through
the blockading squadron were the terror of the smaller Dutch
trading vessels, and especially of the fleet of herring boats,
which, as James had bitterly complained, were engaged in reap-
ing the harvest of the sea along the whole line of the east coast
of England. It happened that, in the summer of
September. I622, two of these privateers, chased by Dutch men-
I)unkirk of-war, took refuge, the one in Aberdeen and the
vessels in 
Lelt and other in Leith, and that in the ardour of the chase,
Aberdeen.
the Dutch captain, who was in pursuit of one of them,
had continued to fire his guns after entering Leith harbour, and

 Trumbull to Calvert, Sept. 5, S. /9. [,!and,rs. -" See p. 73-

63 211"ARITI3IE DISPUTES. 8 

To this declaration the States-General returned answer,
accepting at once the King's exposition of maritime law, and
apologising for the error of their sailors. On the mode of
reparation suggested by Jalnes they were altogether silent,
hesitating naturally enough to let the caged privateers loose
upon their fishermen who were toiling on the billows of the
North Sea. l
To the considerations by which they were influenced James
was indifferent. Both at Leith and at Aberdeen the Dutch
vessels had actually entered his harbours, and they
Two ships
orara to must be prepared to take the consequences of relin-
scoa,na, quishing the blockade. He ordered two ships of the
Royal Navy to be got ready for service in Scotland. He would
set his ports free, he said, one way or other. 
As ill luck would have it, just at the moment when James's
displeasure was at its height, news arrived (.f a fresh violation
of an English harbour. A few days before two Dutch
April.
Seizureofa captains, one of whom was the noted Moy Lambert,
hip at
co,ss, came to an anchor in Cowes roads. Their sight at
thenth, once fell upon a vessel lnanned by countrymen of
their own, which they knew to have been engaged in piracy.
As soon as they notified the fact, the pirate officers were
arrested by the Commander of the Castle, and information was
sent to London. The question whether the ship and its crew
should be delivered up to the Dutch was being examined by
the Privy Council when Lambert, acting on his own authority,
took possession of the vessel and sailed away with it to
Holland)
Worse than this was to follow. On the night of May 3 the
captain of the Dunkirk ship at Leith, weary of his long deten-

 Carleton to Calvert, April 7 ; Answer to the States-General, April 6,
S. t 9. 11olland.
* Conway to Carleton, May 6, ibid. Calvert to Buckingham,
April 24 ; Conway to Buckingham, May {?) tfarl. 3ISS. 58o, fol. 38,
287.
s Conway to Carleton, May  5, with enclosed statement of the proceed-
ings of the Dutch, S. 19. Ztolland. Caron to the States-General, Anril
Add. ,MSS. 7,677 K, fol. o78.
VOL. V. G

x623 THE PARTITION OF THE NETHERLANDS. 85

as we have lately understood both from himself and by your
despatches, there riseth two other particulars of great impor-
tance, as you know ; the one whereof is public, namely, the
restitution of our son-in-law and his posterity to the Palatinates
and dignity electoral ; the other private, concerning the trans-
posing of some part of the Netherland Provinces, and annexing
them to our crown, both which will now fall fitly to be treated
on. And, because this letter is a matter of supreme secrecy,
and not communicable to many, we have thought fit only at
this time to give you authority by this letter, under our hand
and signet, as hereby we do give you full authority and com-
mission jointly and severally, to proceed to the treaty of both
those particulars aforementioned with the commissioners to be
appointed on that side by our good brother the King of Spain,
according to such instructions or directions as you have here-
tofore had from us. nd whatsoever further powers shall be
necessary to be given you in this behalf, you may cause it to
be drawn up there formally and legally, transmitting the same
hither unto us, whereupon we shall pass the same under our
signature and great seal of England, and so return it back unto
you. In the meantime, you may proceed to the treaty according
to the authority here given you, and whatsoever you shall there-
upon conclude in our name, we shall ratify and confirm ; not
doubting but that you will acquaint our dear son, the Prince,
with all your proceedings, front time to time, whilst he remains
in that Court, and assist yourselves also continually with his
advice and directions, for so is our pleasure." 1
Never probably, in the history of the civilised world, was a
war of conquest against a neighbouring nation projected so
lightly, and on so utterly inadequate grounds. That
They are
never acted the consequence of this wild and iniquitous proceed-
on. ing, if by any strange chance it happened to be
successful, would have been the ruin of England as well as of
the Dutch Republic, and the unchecked supremacy of the Pope
and the Catholic monarchies in Europe, James never paused to
consider for an instant. Fortunately, he had at least one amongst

 "1 he King to Buckingham and Bristol, July 23, Sherborne

8 THE ]IARRIAGE CONTRACT. cH. XLIV.
wish to proceed to the partition of the Netherlands. Orders
were sent down to Best to bring his own ship and
He i$ called
before the the Dunkirker up the Thames, where they would be
Councit. in safety from the vengeance of the Dutch, and to
present himself before the Council, in order to give an account
of his proceedings. 1
Two or three days later, Carleton's messenger arrived with
the fresh passport from the States. With this, and with the
accompanying acknowledgment of the justice of his demands,
James was highly delighted. He now began to speak of the
Republic in the most friendly terms, and even went so far as
to declare openly, that as soon as his son came home, he was
September. 'firmly minded to do something' for the States. *
i,gey Best was, therefore, superseded in his command by
takes the
-,i, Sir lichard Bingley, who carried the vessel which
vessel to
Mardike. had been the cause of so much contention into the
Flemish harbour of bIardike, without any further interruption
from the Dutch. s
So ended James's scheme for subduing the Netherlands
with Spanish aid. It could hardly be long before his other
scheme, for regaining the Palatinate with the sante assistance,
would break down still more ignominiously.
t Calvert to Conway, Aug. I2, S. '. Z)om. cl. 86.
 Dudley Carleton to Carleton, Aug. 2, S. '. olland.
 Locke to Carleton, Sept. 4, S. t . )om. clii. 14 o. The Itfanta
Iabella to the King, Sept. 30 .. d " tlander$.
Oct. to '

94 THE PRIA'CIz"S RETUI'IV.
relinquish a negotiation which he disliked, the Spanish minister
was likely to look with especial disfavour upon Buckingham's
insolence. Different as they were in every other respect, Bristol
and Buckinghaln had been of one nfind in objecting to the
fresh terms imposed upon the Prince in consequence of his
presence at Madrid; but what Bristol had said gravely and
respectfully, Buckingham had said petulantly and rudely. Ill
at ease in the part which he was playing, he had vented his dis-
Who caused pleasure upon all towards whom he dared to show
thefailure of his real feelings. He had quarrelled with Bristol, and
the match? he had quarrelled with Olivares; but even he, utterly
void of self-restraint as he was, dared not quarrel with Charles.
In all ordinary matters he could impose his will upon him by
sheer force of audacity. The rude familiarity with which he
treated the Prince caused the greatest astonishment to the
Spaniards. Accustomed as they were to the most rigid etiquette,
it was with the deepest disgust that they saw a subject sitting
without breeches in his dressing-gon at the Prince's table, or
tanding in public with his back towards him, or rudely leaning
forward to stare at the Infanta.  All this Buckingham allowed
himself to do. But he knew that he could not thwart Charles
in the one object upon which he had set his heart; that he must
carry his lnessages, and make himself the instrument of all
those petty compliances so dear to the heart of the youth whom
he served, knowing all the while that he was regarded at home
as the author of concessions which, in reality, he detested.
Sometimes, indeed, Buckingham's feelings were too strong
for him. Once, on receiving a visit from Khevenhiiller, he
showed his consciousness of being duped. "The
Buckingham
 heve- affairs of our masters," he said, "appear to clash at
hfiller.
present. I hope that this marriage will aCCOlnmodate
them. If not, before a year is over, an army will be sent into
Germany strong enough to set everything right by force." The
Imperial Ambassador replied, that the door of grace had been
opened to Frederick, but that he had refused to walk in; and
Buckingham, who probably could not trust himself to pursue
 Wadsworth to Buckingham, Nov. . Goodma's
amcr, ii. 34.

6z3 CHARLES OFFERS TO STA

blessing, to come quickly either with her or without her.
know your love to her person hath enforced you to delay the
putting in execution of nay former commandments. I confess
it is nay chiefest worldly joy that ye love her ; but the necessity
of nay affairs enforceth me to tell you that you must prefer tb, e
obedience to a father to the love ye carry to a mistress." 
Before this letter reached Madrid, there had been a fresh
struggle between Charles and the Spanish Court. The con-
ferences with Olivares and the messages to the
Spanish
proposalthat Infanta had failed in producing the expected result.
L'harles shall
be married Philip utterly refused to give up his sister a day
in Spain
sooner than he had promised ; but in one respect he
now changed his tactics. If Charles would consent to remain
in Spain till Christmas, he might then be married in person,
and would be allowed to live with the Infanta as his wife,
though she would not be permitted to leave Madrid till the
appointed time in the spring.
That there were the gravest objections to such a plan was
evident to anyone less deeply in love than Charles; and no
doubt there were not a few around him who reminded him
that, if he accepted the offer, he would not only be placing
himself in Philip's hands as a hostage for another half-year,
but that if, before the spring came, there were a prospect
of the Infanta becoming a mother, fresh excuses for delay
would arise, which would, in all probability, end in placing in
Spanish hands another heir to the English throne--another
hostage for James's subserviency to Spain in the affair of the
accepted by Palatinate. Yet, in spite of these reasonable objec-
Charles. tions, Charles told Philip that he was ready to accept
the conditions, and even sought an audience of the Queen in
order to assure her, in the Infanta's presence, that he had made
up his mind to remain. 
Scarcely was this resolution taken when Cottington arrived,
bringing with him the signatures of the King and Council to
the marricge articles. Once more Charles tried, by a renewed

 The King to the Prince, Aug. IO, Har, iwicke S./'. i. 44.
"' rancisco ,te 'sus, 3 2.

I623 CtZA]?ZES RESOL VF_.S TO RF_.TURA: Io3

happened, naturally took the part of the priest, and, but for
the timely arrival of the alcalde, backed by the
A priest
struck by Sir interposition of Gondomar, the tmnult which en-
.Verny. sued would hardly have been quieted without
bloodshed.
It was no doubt with a feeling of triumph mingled with
sorrow, that Verney and his friends attended the funeral o
Washington in the burial-ground in the garden behind Bristol's
house, which was the only resting-place allowed to the lad
whom they had prevented from acknowledging with the lips
the belief which he entertained in his heart. At Philip's Court
the tidings were received with indignation. How can it be
expected, it was asked, that these men should behave better to
the Catholics in England than they do in Spain? To meet
Disput,+ the opposition which had been raised, Charles
out ordered Verney to leave Madrid ; but this was not
punishing
Verney. enough to satisfy the Nuncio ; and, at his colnplaint,
the King sent Gondomar to demand that the offender should
be rigorously punished. The Prince was deeply annoyed, and
demanded in return that the alcalde should be punished for
laying hands upon his servant. At last Philip cut the matter
short by sending a message to Charles, to tell him that, if he
wished to spend the winter at Madrid, he must dismiss all his
Protestant attendants. 
Such a collision between the two Courts made Charles's
stay at Madrid more difficult than ever. At last, therefore, he
gave way to the solicitations of those around him,
Aug. o.
Chres and announced to his father his resolution to leave
writes that ,,
he will leave Spain. "The cause, he explained, "why we have
Madrid. been so long in writing to you since Cottinon's
coming, is that we would try all means possible, before we
would send you word, to see if we could move them to send
the Infanta before winter. They, for form's sake, called the
divines, and they stick to their old resolution, but we find, by
circumstances, that conscience is not the true but seeming
cause of the Infanta's stay. To conclude, we have wrought
 Francisco de ffCesus, 8 3. Corner to the Doge, Sept. to 'enize AISS.
Spagna. Howell's Zetters, Book i., Set. 3, Letter 20.

xo4 THE PRINCE'S RETURN. cH. XLV.
what we can, but since we cannot have her with us that we
desired, our next comfort is that we hope shortly to kiss your
llajesty's hands." 
Such was the meagre account which Charles thought fit
to give to his father of that fortnight of weakness and vacil-
Ho,r,,r lation, of promises unfulfilled, and of words only
were the uttered to be recalled. What he meant by the cir-
Spaniards
in faulty cumstances which, in his opinion, were the cause of
the Infanta's stay, it is impossible to tell ; but those who have
attentively perused the true narrative of his proceedings will
hardly join in the cry, which has been repeated from century
to century, that the Spaniards were deeply to blame in refusing
to send the Infanta at once to England, excepting so far as
they deserve blame for not taking a wider and more generous
view than they did of the crisis through which the world was
in that day passing. There can be little doubt that they would
have preferred not to send the IntZanta at all, if it could have
been done without exasperating Charles and his father into
declaring war, and that they looked upon her detention, not
merely as affording them time to ascertain how James would
treat his Catholic subjects, but as enabling them to come
to some definite understanding as to the resistance which he
was likely to offer to their scheme for the forced conversion
of the Palatinate to their creed. From this point of view it
is hard to blame Olivares for the course which he took ; for
he had learned by a strange experience to know Charles as
his countrymen were, to their sorrow, to know him in coming
years. He had discovered that he was at the same time both
weak and obstinate. How was Philip to entrust his sister to
such a man? Who was to guarantee that the moment the
wedded pair landed in England the whole of the edifice of
religious liberty, which was one day to become the edifice of
religious supremacy for the Catholics, would not be overthrown,
with a shout of triumph ?
Olivares was a liar of a very different stamp from Charles.
He, at least, was perfectly aware whether his words were in-
tended to be true or not, whilst Charles was, probably, perfecti 7
 The Prince and BucldnLzlaam to the King, Aug. co, lrardwicke S. P.
. 448.

x6z 3 CHARLES PREP4RES TO RETq.A: I I 3

resolved to disregard his father's commands. The new Pope,
Urban VIII., had fallen ill almost immediately after his elec-
tion, and till he was able to send the necessary powers by which
the Nuncio would be authorised to hand over the dispensation
to Philip, the marriage could not take place. Whilst Charles
was thus kept in inaction, he asked leave of Philip to present to
his future bride a magnificent chain of pearls, a pair of diamond
earrings, and another single diamond of priceless value. The
King took them from him, showed them to his sister, and re-
turned him word that he would keep them safely for her till after
the marriage. Annoyed at the fresh rebuff, Charles once more
announced his positive intention of returning to England ; yet
those who watched him closely doubted whether he would not
have lingered on, if Philip, who was by this time thoroughly
tired of his guest, had not taken him at his word, and assured
him that his presence with his thther would be the best means
of facilitating those arrangements which were the necessary
conditions of the Infanta's journey in the spring. I
It was, therefore, now arranged that the Prince, being unable
to wait any longer for tidings from Rome, should make out a
proxy in the names of the King of Spain and his brother the
Infant Charles, and that this proxy should be lodged in Bristol's
hands. Before he went, he was himself to swear solemnly to
the marriage contract which he had signed on August 4.
If Charles had possessed one spark of that ' heroica; virtue'
for which he allowed himself to take credit a few months later,
he would surely have paused here. For many months he had
known that the Spaniards were not dealing fairly by him. He
had now learned that, whatever they might have said when they
were hard pressed, they had not the slightest intention of assist-
ing his brother-in-law to recover the Palatinate by force of arms.
That he was thoroughly dissatisfied with the discovery there
can be no doubt whatever.  Still less can there be any doubt
that it was his plain duty to make up his mind before he took
 Corner to the Doge, Sept. x_o Venice Irss. Desp. Spagna.
z In a letter written about the end of September to Aston
Slain), Buckingham reminded Aston that the Prince had cxp'.'essed himself
to this effect before leaving Madrid.
VOL. V.

4 TH PRINCE'S RETURiV. CH. XLVo

the oath, whether or no he meant to demand a promise of
Aug. 8. armed assistance as a condition of his marriage
Charles But in Charles's lnind such considerations found no
takes the
oath to the place. On the 28th he took the solemn oath binding
marriage
contract; himself to the marriage, and engaged to leave his
proxy behind to be used within ten days after the arrival from
Rome of the Pope's consent. 
The next day Charles went to take his leave of the Queen, in
Aug. =9. whose presence he saw the Infanta for the last titne.
tkesea,,e With his parting words he assured her that he had
of the ln-
fnt ; taken the Catholics of England under his protection,
aug. o. and that they should never again suffer persecution.
and leaves The rest of the day was spent in giving and receiv-
Madrid.
ing presents, and on the following morning he started
for the Escurial, accomFanied by Philip and his brothers.
It is probable that, in urging Charles to go home to see
the marriage treaty carried out, Philip was giving expression
to his real wishes; but, whatever may have been his real
feelings about Charles, there can be no doubt whatever as
to the disgust with which he regarded Buckinghmn, whose
insolence was ever), day becoming more and more
Arrogance of
Bucking- unbearable. Strange words were now heard frotn
ha. the lips of the polite and courteous Spaniards. "We
would rather," said one of them, speaking of Buckingham to
Bristol, " put the Infanta headlong into a well than into his
hands." Bristol was in great distress. Ever since he had had
the misfortune to differ from the favourite he had, as he said,
been treated worse than a dog ; but he had never allowed his
resentment to get the better of him, and had, if possible, been
Aug. =9. more respectful than before. = He saw that it was
Bristol in- at last time to speak out. " I must here," he wrote
forms the
King of it. to his master, "likea faithful and much obliged
s.crvant unto )'our Majesty, presume to deal freely and clearly
with you, that if your Majesty's great and high wisdom find
not means to cotnpound and accommodate what is now out ot

 Francizco de ffCesus, 84. Spanish Narrative in Nichols's t'rogresss
9o7.
-" Bristol to the King, Aug. 2o, Cabala, 95-

162 T'E ]IARR1AGE 2"0 BE POS2rPO2V.ED. I9
would be able to represent it as having only just come to hand.
The meaning of this mancuvre is unfortunately but too easy
to understand. Bristol would be compelled to postpone the
betrothal for more than three weeks, whilst he was commu-
nicating with Charles in England, although the Prince had
solemnly consented to the arrangement by which the ceremony
was to be perlbrmed ten days after the arrival of the news from
Rome. It would seem, therefore, that the scheme was one
carefully prepared by Charles in order to take revenge for the
slights which he had received, by the outrageous device of
rendering the redemption of his ovn promise itnpossible ; if,
indeed, the explanation is not rather to be sought in his burning
desire to throw off his engagements, without cousideration for the
nature of the method by which he proposed to gain his object.
Unconscious of the disgrace which he was bringing upon
himself in the eyes of all honourable men, Charles pursued his
a'he 'inc way to Santander, taking care every day to indite a
continues his few words of greeting to the Sovereign who little
iourney, dreamed of the insult which had been so elaborately
prepared for him. As he drew near the coast his anxiety
increased to know whether the fleet, which had been long de-
tained by contrary winds in the English Channel, had yet
arrived to bear him away from the now detested soil of Spain.
Early in the morning of the eth, when he was about six
leagues from Santander, he was met by Sir John Finett, and
Sir Thomas Somerset, who had been riding all night to greet
hi,n with the welcome tidings. The news, he after-
Sept. .
Ha .... wards assured Finett, made him look upon him 'as
barkation.
one that had the face of an angel.'  As the Prince
entered Santander, the bells were rung, and the cannon of the
fort were fired, in honour of his coming; but Charles, whose
heart was in the fleet which bore the English flag, did not
respond to these signs of welcome. Late as it was in the after-
t Francisco de Jesus says that the letter was to be kept back till one or
two days before the marriage; but, from Clarke's own letter to Buckingham
[Cabala, 991, there can be little doubt that his orders were as I have given
them.
-0 Finetti thiloxcnis, 2o.

t24 THE PRINCE'S RETURN. cI. XLV.
married life of which such great expectations had been
formed, t
Yet already doubts were beginning to be entertained at
Madrid whether, after all, those expectalions would be realised.
Misled by Charles's readiness to make every conces-
Doubts of
the Spanish sion that was required of him, Olivares had coin.
ti,,it. mitred the blunder of forgetting the large part which
vanity had in his professions of love for the Infilnta. Fie had
calculated that because Charles was ready to do anything,
and to swear to anything, in order to carry with him his
promised bride, he would therefore be equally read)' to redeem
his engagements in the hope of obtaining her in the spring.
Itaving omitted in his calculations the consequences of offended
pride, he was now to learn that Charles, who would have
accepted all his terms in order to obtain the credit of success,
would be equally ready to shake off the most binding engage-
ments in the vain hope of wiping away the disgrace of failure.
In one respect, at least, the Spanish minister appears to
have resolved to surrender his hopes. From the moment that
Intentions of Charles began to show any spirit of independence,
Oiv--e. nothing more was heard about the Parliamentary
repeal of the penal laws, which had been so marked a feature
in the previous discussions. It almost seems as if Olivares
would have been content to allow that point to drop out o!
sight, in spite of the long and arduous struggle which it had
cost him.
Even before Charles arrived in England, the news forwarded
by the Spanish ambassadors must have created some doubt in
August. the mind of Olivares whether even the ground which
"rh p.aon had been gained by the agreement of Salisbury was
and dispen-
sation, not slipping from under his feet. For three weeks after
the signature of that agreement the question of the form in which
the promises then made were to be clothed in legal phraseolog)'
had been the subject of warm discussion; and, though there
does not appear to have been any intention to raise delays, the
length of time thus occupied brought forth grievous complaints
from the Spanish ambassadors, and especially from the hot-
 I"rancisco de yesus, 88.

I3 o

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE BREACH WITH SPAIN.

,.rITH the shouts of welcome ringing in lus ears, Charles
hastened to meet his father. After the first warm greetings were
oct. 6. over, the King took his son and his favourite into an
Chare. at inner room. and closed the doors. Charles spoke with
Royston.
angry dissatisfaction of the refusal of the Spaniards to
allow him to bring his bride to England, and of their ill-treat-
ment of him during his stay at Madrid. " I am ready," he said,
as soon as his tale was ended, "to conquer Spain, if you will
allow me to do it." i What else passed between the father and
son after this boyish outburst, we do not know. The courtiers
without listened long to the outbursts of merriment or of indig-
nation which expressed the varying feelings of the speakers, in
the vain hope o_f catching some indication of the turn which the
conversation was taking. At last the doors were thrown open,
and the King came forth to supper. Once more all ears were
on the alert, and it was not long before the listeners were
rejoiced by the sound of words to which they had been long
unused from Royal lips. James, it seemed, after all, was not
displeased at the delay of the marriage, as long as he had no
t In his despatch of March o_ 624, in the Madrid Palace Library,
19 '
Carondelet stated that James told him that the first thing the Prince had
said to him after his return from Spain wa.,, 'Despues de mostraEe el
ntimiento que tenia de que le huviesen dejado volver sin la Infanta y
quejadose de otras muchas cosas, fueron estas palabras ; que avia de con-
quistar {t Espafia si lo permitia ; y que esto se le aria confirmado el Principe
muchas veces pot cosa muy posible, aunque el le havia respondido hacicncio
burla dello.'

t623 JA]IFS'S TER.1IS. i35

magnify it sufficiently, which makes us not know how Sufficiently
to give thanks ; but we will that by all means you endeavour to
express our thankfulness to that King, and the rest to whom it
belongs, in the most aml,le manner you can. And hereupon
you may take occasion to let that King know that, according to
our constant affection to make a firm and indissoluble amity
between our families, nations, and crowns, and not seem to
abandol our honour, nor, at the same ume we give joy to our
only son, to give our only daughter a portion in tears, by the
advice of that King's ambassadors, we have entered a treaty
concerning the restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral dignity
to our son-in-law to be really procured by that King, according
to the obligation of our honour, as you have well expressed in
your reasons why lie person of our son-in-law should not be
left out of the treaty ; but that the Emperor should find out a
great title, or by increasing the number of Electoral States
wherewith to satisfy the Duke of Bavaria. We now, therefore,
require you that presently on your first audience you procure
from that King a punctual answer what course that King will
take for the restitution of the Palatinate and Electorate to our
son-in-law ; and in case that either the Emperor or the Duke
of Bavaria oppose any part of the expected restitution, what
course that King will take to give us assurance for our content
on that point, whereof we require your present answer; and
that you so press expedition herein that we may all together
receive the full joy of both in Christmas, resting ourself upon
that faithful diligence of yours we have approved in all your
sen'ice ; though ahnost with the latest we nmst remember to
you as a good ground for you to work on, that our son did write
us out of Spain that that King would give us a blank, in which
we might form our own conditions concerning the Palatinate,
and the same our son confirms to us now. What observation
and performance that King will make we require you to express,
and give us a speedy account." t
In thig letter, James, passing by, as unworthy of notice,
]ristol's statement that a postponelnent of the marriage v;ould

The King to Bristol, Oct. 8, Calala,

25 THE BREACH IVITH SPAIA; c4. XLVl
he regarded in Spain as a personal insult, quietly fixed, as
Intentions of if it were a mere matter of course, upon a day subse-
J,,mes. quent to the date at which, as he must have known if
he had read his ambassador's despatch with the slightest atten-
tion, his son's proxy would expire. The remainder of the letter
was no less characteristic of the man. He evidently believed
that the King of .qpain would be able and willing to effect what
was now equivalent to a revolution in Germany as a personal
favour to himself. For himself to take part in the German war
on behalf of his kindred and religion was a task which was,
in his eyes, surrounded by ever-increasing difficulties ; for the
King of Spain to join in the strife on the side opposite to his
own family interests and his own warmest convictions, was a
mere trifle, from which it would be ridiculous to expect him
to shrink.
James's letter was accompanied by one from the Prince.
"The King," wrote Charles, "has thought good in this interim
of expectation for nay mistress, to give you a COrn-
Charles
writes to mand to try what the King of Spain will do concern-
Bristol, ing the business of the Palatinate before I be c,n-
tracted, and his reason is--which I could not reply to--that,
having but two children, he would be loth that one of them
should have cause to weep when the other has reason to laugh ;
and I was the rather induced to yield unto it, because the King
may very well have a positive answer of this before Christmas,
so that it will lose no time in that business I desire so much.
Although this be a needless office, because I am sure you wi'.l
understand this more amply by the King's own letters, yet I
have written this that ye may know from me, as well as from
the King my father, lhe intent of this direction, which I assure
you is in no way to break the marriage, but, in this dull interim
of looking for my mistress, to put an end to the miseries of my
sister and her children, which I should have done if I had
stayed this winter." 
Another letter, written to Aston on the same day, is far more
indicative of Charles's realeelings. "Honest Watt," he wrote,

The Prince to Bristol, Oct. S, Sherborne 2VISS.

623 'ttlLIP'.ff TER3IS. ,39
be done to meet James's wishes, and in proportion as the
Palatine gave satisfaction, his States would be restored either
to himself or to his children. After the death of the Duke of
Bavaria, the Electorate would revert to Frederick's eldest son.
But, to quote the words of the document itself :--" ;ks the afore-
'.;aid Count Palatine has up to this time shown so little sign of
submission or repentance, and as he has made such notorious
attempts upon his lord the Emperor, it seems that it would be
of very ill example that he should not retain in his individual
person some mark of punishment." 
As far as Frederick's own position was concerned, nothin
more could fairly be expected. Ignorant as the Spanish
ministers necessarily were of the letter which had been written
the day before at the Hague, they were not ignorant that it
was only after Christian's defeat at Stadtloo that Frederick had
been brought to consent to an)' negotiation at all. The really
serious point in the King of Spain's declaration was the total
omission of any reference to the Protestant governor who was
to ha'e superintended young Frederick Henry's education
at Vienna. The omission was evidently intentional; and, in
(act, Olivares, sanguine as usual, was already conamunicating to
Khevenhiiller a plan by which Frederick might be induced m
travel to Vienna in order to throw himself a the Emperor's
feet, and to leave, not onl) his eldest, but also his second son,
to be educated in the Catholic religion. -
Such were the secret plans of Olivares and his master, when,
on October 2i, the despatches written in England on the 8th
were placed in Bristol's hands. Ignorant, alike of F_'.'ederick's
last impracticable demands, and of the no less impracticable de-
signs of the Spanish Government, the ambassador still cherished
the belief that, when once the Prince of Wales was married,
Philip could not fail to exert himself on behalf of the interests of
his brother-in-law on the Continent. As be was himself without
an)' religious enthusiasm whatever, and was accustomedto regard
passing events from the point of view of a secular politician, he
 Ciriza to Bristol, Oct.  S. _P. Stab. Olivares to Cottington (?),
Oct. a__x tIacket, 483. " Ytenhiiller, x. 99.

14o TIt: I'EM CH IVIT"lq SPML'V. CH. XLVl.
was always too apt to leave out of consideration the action
either of genuine religious feeling, or of that theological par-
tisanship which follows like a ground-swell the storm which has
been already hushed. But, mistaken as he was in his interpre-
tation of the purposes of the Spanish Court, he knew far better
than to imagine that the war which had now been raging for five
disastrous years could be allayed in a few weeks b)" Philip's
lllere word.
Under the influence of these impressions Bristol received
directions t, put off the marriage till after Christmas. Such a
Oct. ,4. step he told his master plainly, would throw back into
Iristul uncertainty all that had been covenanted in respect
complains of
thepo-tpone- Of the lnarriage. The proxy with which he was en-
lellt of the
marriage, trusted would then have expired. Nor was this the
worst. This question of the Palatinate had often been under
debate, but it had never been insisted upon as a ground for
postponing the marriage. If it were now brought forward, it
could not be but that the Spaniards would suspect that it was a
mere pretext, and nothing more ; for there could be no doubt
that to make the match conditional upon the restoration of the
Palatinate was a totally new demand. His own instructions had
been ' to insist upon the restoring of the Prince Palatine, but
not so as to annex it to the treaty of the match, as that thereby
the match should be hazarded ;' his Majesty having 'seemed
confident they here would never grow to a perfect conclusion of
the match, without a settled resolution' to give him ' satisfaction
in the business of the Palatinate.' Both the Prince and Buck-
ingham had treated the business in a similar spirit, and they
might remember that ' Olivares often protested the necessity of
having this business compounded and settled before the marriage,
saying, otherwise they might give a daughter and have a war
within three months after, if this ground and subject of quarrel
should be still left on foot.'
Bristol then proceeded to point out, in the most guarded
terms, the absurdity of the course which he was asked to take.
The restoration of the Palatinate, he showed, was not an affair
to be hustled over in a day ; it vas a question in which many
great Princes were interested, and it certainly could not be

16-'- 3 .BRISTOL'S REMONSTRA,VCE. I4t

obtained excepting after long and formal negotiations. If th.,"
Prince were to wait for his wile till these were brought to an end,
he might wait long. He had no doubt that the King of Spain
would really assist in obtaining that which had been asked;
but to denmnd a peremptory answer, under the penalty of re-
taining the proxy, was to fling an insult in his face and in the
face of his sister, which was sure to be bitterly resented. He
therefore hoped that orders would at once be sent him to make
use of the proxy when called for, and at the same time to use
every means in bib power to obtain a better answer about the
Palatinate.x
However respectfully Bristol's letter had been worded, he lind
contrived to tell his sovereign that he had dr)he a foolish thing,
and that he had better undo it as soon as possible.
It is not necessary to share 13ristol's confidence in the reality
of Spanish promises--to agree with him in his estimate ot
James's letter. It might be -ise to break off his son's marriage
at any cost. It might be wise to obtain a distinct engagement
fiom Philip about the Palatinate. But to expect to ring such
an engagement from Philip by the studied insult of postponing
the betrothal, and at the same time to talk about the most
perfect amity and friendship, was mere infatuation.
Yet, infatuation as it was, it was a dream to which James
clung with his usual tenacity. Every day, indeed, Buckingham,
an.ietyof and the Prince under Buckingham's guidance, were
James. urging him to make the restitution of the Palatinate
the indispensable condition of the marriage. But neither Buck-
ingham nor Charles cared for anything larger than the imme-
diate interests of the hour ; whereas James, in his uncertain and
helpless way, had been labouring for years to promote the peace
and well-being cf Europe. Whilst he was waiting for the
replies from the Hague and from Madrid to the despatches
which he had sent forth as the messengers of peace, his anxiety
brought on a fit of the gout, which rendered him more than
ever incapable of coming to a decision.
In the meanwhile, though the Spanish ambassadors were

Bristol to the King, Oct. 24, ]-]ardwi,'ke State Pa.ers, i. 483.

52 THE BREACH IVITH SPAI. r. CH. XLVI.
indeed not likely that Philip would again engage to take up
arms against the Emperor, but it is not improbable that an effort
would have been made to obtain some further concessions in
Frederick's favour.
Whether, under existing circumstances, the attempt to obtain
the conversion of the young Prince would have been aban-
doned, it is impossible to say ; but it is certain that Olivares
ws beginning to open his eyes to nmch to which, six months
before, he had been wilfully blind. In the summer he had
imagined that the conversion of England and the Palatinate
were such mere trifles as hardly to be worth any extraordinary
effort. Since the Prince had left Madrid he had begun to
suspect that the prize might even now elude his grasp. He
had begun to conceive the possibility that Charles might have
ccased to set his heart upon the Infanta, and not a word was
now uttered on the subject of those Parliamentary guarantees
for religious liberty for the sake of which he had done so
nmch to alienate the Prince. Upon the failure of the marriage,
indeed, both he and Philip would probably have looked with
considerable equanimity. What they really dreaded was a
war with England, and as the tales reached them of Bucking-
ham's frenzied denunciations, and of Charles's moody silence,
they could not but regard such a war as likely to break out
at no distant time. To avert this catastrophe they were
ready to make an)" reasonable concession. There were some
things, indeed, that they could not do. They could not re-
admit Mansfeld into the heart of Germany; and they could
not, whatever they might have said in a moment of heed-
lessness, take arms against the Emperor. But whatever gave
promise of a firm and stable peace, they were prepared to
advocate. Let Frederick show that he could again be trusted
in the Palatinate, and the Court of Madrid would not have
been the last to relinquish those airy dreams of ecclesiastical
supremacy which had seemed so lifelike a few short months
before. ,
It is seldom possible for one who has woven such a web of
falsehood as that at which Olivares had been labouring ever
ince his uncle's death, to regain the solid ground of truth.

t623 7A.IIES'S PROPOS.4.L REJECTED. ! 55
demand, and one which is impracticable, on account of the
philip re- great obligations under which his Catholic Majesty
f,,e to,r.1 lies towards him. This was said to the Prince of
agaist the
:pro. Wales when the matter was discussed here; and
lately the same declaration was repeated by the Marquis of
Inojosa to the King of Great Britain, when, at his last audience,
they were conversing on the subject, and his Majesty declared
himself satisfied.
"As to the alliance and amity required, and the novelty of
introducing the settlement of this question as a condition of
the marriage, it is answered that this business of the settlement
of the Palatine's affairs has altogether changed both in form
and substance by this new and unexpected course whsch the
anabassadors have attempted to introduce, it being now asked
as a condition of the marriage. On this point, therefore, his
1Majesty has nothing more to say than that he will on all occa-
sions wish well to the prosperity of the King of Great Britain ;
and that that which would be most conducive to his security,
and to the better success of this business, might easily be done.
His Majesty, therefore, replies forthwith formally to the pro-
position made to him, that there is need of forethought ; and
his Majesty is still considering of giving a good direction, not
only to this business of the Palatine, but to all those matters
from which any inconvenience may spring to the perpetuity of
this friendship and alliance. As his Majesty looks upon this
amity with so great affection and desire for its perfect attain-
ment, it would be an error not to forestall and to arrange
everything that was conducive to this end, as his Majesty the
King of Great Britain and the Prince his son did in the present
business; a resolution which his Catholic Majesty approves
and praises much." 
Such was the answer by which James's hopes were finally
extinguished on the side of Spain. That the insult which he
received had sunk deeply into Philip's mind is most certain,
but though the form of his reply would undoubtedly have been
more courteous if the marriage had taken place, there is no

Reply of the King of Spain, Dec. _2_9 S. /9. @ain.

162

TIlE RACIl IVITtt .SPAIN. cm XLVl

promise that, as a matter of favour, the lot u the English
Catholics should be alleviated. It was on this rock that the
negotiations had almost split when the war in Germany broke
out. A Protestant Prince, in the hope of protecting the fol-
lowers of his own creed, engaged in a rash attempt to overturn
the whole political fabric of the Empire, without even proposing
to substitute anything stable in its room. Borne back by the
ahnost universal indignation which his rashness had excited, he
was wandering about a fugitive, whilst the victorious Emperor
m mi.ion was converting his recovered power into an engine of
to Germany. religious persecution. It was at this moment that the
English statesman stepped upon the scene. Seizing at a glance
the difficulties of the work of pacification, he proposed a com-
promise, which, whether it were logically defensible or not,
would have been in the highest deee satisfactory to the vast
majority of the German nation. Let the Emperor, he said in
effect, blot the past out of his memory, and replace his rival in
the position which he occupied before the war; let Frederick
not only renounce the title of King of Bohemia which he had
assumed, but let hi,n, by making due submission to the Em-
peror, abandon the right of private war within the limits of the
Empire.
That such a compromise would have conduced alike to the
peace of Europe and the independence of Protestantism it is
impossible to doubt. Relie-ed from the dread of anarchy,
Lutherans and Cal'inists would have presented a united front
to Catholic aggression, and the provocation which in the end
roused the opposition by which the Imperial power was crushed,
would never have been given. Unhappily the English Ambas-
sador stood alone. His master had sent him to speak words
of wisdom, but had taken no care to support his representa-
tions by the argument of the sword ; and he therefore hastened
back to England to hurry on those preparations which had
been too long delayed. The flames of war were. already blazing
behind him. Ferdinand could see no law but the written one,
and no basis of authority excepting the Churct of Rome.
Frederick had thrown himself into the arms of a needy adven.
turer, who was prepared, in order to advance his own ends, to

6-3 .BRISTOL AS A STATES21AA r. 163
spread fire and slaughter over the fair fields of his native
land.
The day when Parliament was dissolved without granting a
penny to the public service, must have been the saddest in
the life of the patient, much-enduring man. Every apparent
difficulty had been surmounted, and all opposition had been
silenced, when he saw his dearest hopes wrecked on his
sovereign's infirmity of temper.
It would have been well for him if his public career had
ended there. After his return to Spain he was rather hoping
isreturn against hope than pursuing any rational scheme. He
to Spain. learned to look with trust upon Spanish promises,
lhough he had no longer the hope which he had once cherished,
that his master would stand forward to enforce their perform-
ance. Yet, after all, his error was the error of a noble mind.
He could not bear to think that others were less honest or less
dear-sighted than himself. Against Frederick he maintained
that no peace was to be had unless he would restore the reign
of order in the Empire. Against Ferdinand and Philip he
maintained that no peace was t be had without guarantees for
religious independence. For the sake of the benefits which
would be accorded to the English Catholics, Spain would, he
trusted, support hhn in imposing his compromise upon Germany,
and it was only too late that he learned how unconquerable
was the perversity of Frederick's nature, whilst he never learned
at all that the Spanish ministers had been aiming, not merely
at the alleviation of the sufferings of the few Catholics who
were left in England, but at the reduction, by fraud or by force,
of England heself to the creed of the Roman Catholic Church.
Thus it came to pass that Bristol saw the barque which bore
his political fortunes go down before his eyes; wrecked, not as he
Failure of himself imagined, upon the petulance of Buckingham
i ope. and the imbecility of Charles, but upon the inherent
difficulties of the task which he had undertaken. The terms
x-hich he proposed may easily be criticised, and might probably
b.ave been amended with advantage; but his chief fault was
that he attempted to impose terms at all upon those who were
mwilling to assent to any reasonable compromise whatever.
I1 2

I64 THE BREACH I4/TTtt SPoil.X: CH. XLVI.
Bristol was now to take leave of the scene in which he had
played so distinguished and so honourable a part. To the last
,64. he preserved the full dignity of his character. Buck-
1.,.,4. ingham he had never flattered; but he had never
3ristol's
,ttrto ceased to treat him with respect. The letter which
| ucking-
gain. he wrote to him soon after the postponement of the
marriage would surely have touched the heart of any man who
was not lost to all sense of public duty. "The present estate
of the King's affairs," he said, " requireth the concurrency of
all his servants, and the co-operation of all his ministers, which
maketh me desirous to make your Grace this tender of nay
service ; that if there have happened any errors or misunder-
standings, your Grace would for that regard pass them over;
and for anything that may personally concern nay particular, I
shall labour to give you that satisfaction as may deserve your
friendship. And if that shall not serve the turn, I shall not be
found unarmed with patience against anything that can happen
unto me." 1
Language such as this was absolutely thrown away upon
Buckingham. The favourite was not to be propitiated by any-
on'r a thing short of the ntost cringing subservience, and it
to hi,,, r was not long before it was known all over Europe
i,,.. that when Bristol returned to London it would be,
if Buckingham could have his way, to find ruin and disgrace
before him. With the best intentions, but with very question-
able taste, Olivares stepped forward to save him. In the
presence of Gondomar and Aston he assured him that he was
ordered to express his master's gratitude for the services which
he had rendered to both Crowns, and that he was directed
to place in his hands a sheet of white paper, which be was at
liberty to fill up as he pleased in his own favour, tie might
ask either for lands or for honours, with the full assurance that
nothing would be denied bina. If he could further suggest any
means by which he might be defended against his enemies at
home, it should be put into execution at once.
To this strange proposal Bristol replied with dignity. The

Bristol to Buckingham, Dec. 6, Cabala, 96.

166

THE BREACH ITTH SPAIN. CH. XLVl.

root of all moral and intellectual vigour. On the other side
was a Protestantism which had lost all respect for law, and
which had allied itself with the selfish greed of princes, and
with the marauding instincts of the plunderers by whom the
honourable name of soldiers was disgraced. The coming
miseries of that war were beyond even Bristol's
The fiture
of the Thirty vision. The help which Charles was eager to
years' War. render to his brother-in-law proved to be vain. No
cause could support the accumulated burden of Frederick's
incapacity, of Charles's weakness, and of the selfishness of
Mansfeld and Christian ; but when the victory had been won
by the sword of Tilly, and the whole of Northern Germany lay
at the Emperor's feet, then was revealed in turn the incapacity
of Ferdinand to become the second founder of the Empire.
He might have been the head of a united Germany ; he might
have given renewed life to the old national institutions, and
have made the cold and calculating aggressions of Richelieu
and of Louis XIV. impossible. Lorraine and Alsace would stil!
have remained German soil, and, what was of far greater conse-
quence, two centuries of moral and political anarchy would
have been spared to the noble German nation. Unhappily
Ferdinaud was still the Ferdinand of old. By the Edict of Resti-
tution he replaced the two religions upon that legal basis which,
in his eyes, was all in all. In the composition of his mind
there was no room for the political element which weighs the
feelings, the hopes, the passions of men before proceeding to
action. He cared little that his extremity of law was held by
half the nation to be the extremity of injustice. Therefore it
was that, instead of standing, as he might have stood, at the
head of a united people, he found himself coercing a divided
nation by the sword of an army which represented nothing but
a faction. And what an army it was ! Mansfeld and Christian
were no longer alive, and their misdeeds had ceased to be a
terror to German citizens and peasants. Frederick was living
in hopeless exile, unregretted and forgotten. It was round
Wallenstein, the general who represented the majesty of the
Imperial name, and the cause of order against anarchy, that
every element of disturbance gathered. During the first years

623 THlz" FUTURE OF G.ER|IAN t". 167

of strife, men of every creed had cast yearning eyes towards
him who wore the crown of the Ottos and the Fredericks, to
seek for that help which might reduce the chaos into order.
They would never look with hope to Vienna agai,a. The
Empire had survived external contempt and internal dissolu-
tion ; but the iniquities of Wallenstein laid it in the dust.
For a moment, the avenging arm of the great Swede was
raised to redr,.ss the balance of the war, and to re-establish
the Empire upon a Protestant basis. With the genius to
construct as well as to destroy, it is probable that if he had
been born a Ger,nan prince, he might have stood at the
head of a new and hal)pier era. As it was, his career, even if
his days had been prolonged, was predestined to failure. It
was the last effort, ahnost till our own day, to establish any
national order in Gerlnany. After him calne that waste and
howling wilderness, resounding with shrieks and bitter cries, and
tilted with the struggles of brutal and degraded beings who
seemed in form alone to resenable human kind. The hideous
misery of that war, if war it can be called, no writer would
willingly descend to recount ; no reader 'ould care to hear
recited.
Yet, if Bristol was in the right in holding that the sword
c.f England could not be drawn in such a war to the advantage
Veeingi of herself or of the Continent, he was scarcely con-
ngaa. scious of the wide basis upon which rested that
uneasy dissatisfaction with the existing state of things which
had spread anaongst all classes of the population at home;
for he was hardly aware how completely the conditions of
European politics had changed since he first arrived at Madrid
in i6I[. Then the evil, before which the rising
Change
the condition intellect of the ti,ne shrank with horror, was the
ofwoge., prolongation of the religious strife. Everywhere the
tendency of the age was towards an obliteration of the line
drawn with such marked distinctness between the two creeds.
1n the field of speculation, the historian of the progress of
tolerance can point to the spread of the Ar,ninian theory. In
the field of practical politics, he can trace the growing prepon-
derance of political over theological arguments for persecution.

6-"3 GER.IL-I'VY AND E2VGZ..AA'D. 6

vanity. The great question which the Protestants of that age
were called upon to solve was the eternal question which
presents itself to all who have embraced freedom in any form.
Would they regard their liberty as a means by which to grasp
the conception of a higher order than they had known before ?
Would they learn discipline and obedience? Would they
reverence law, and count truth as a most precious jewel? If
they could do this, then the victories of Wimpfen and H/Schst
and Stadtloo would have been won in vain. If not, the world
would turn in disgust to the stillness of Papal absolutism, that
i might escape from the miseries which the abuse of liberty
had set before it.
Such was the question which Germany had failed to com-
prehend, but to which England was ready to respond. The
men of that generation were prepared to build upon the
foundations of that reverence at once for justice and for
fi'eedom which the events of centuries had laid deep in the
English character. The world was to learn that there were
men who were ready to suffer and to die, if need be, on behalf
of principles more true, and of an order mot6 fruitful of good
and noble life than anything which Ferdinand and Maximilian
had found it possible to conceive. From the study of Bacon,
from the parsonage of George Herbert, from the pulpit of
Baxter, from the prison of Eliot, a light was to break forth,
splendid in its multiplicity of colour and of brilliancy, which
would teach the world to shrink from anarchy and despotism
alike, and to entrust the treasure of its moral and intellectual
progress to ordered liberty.
How long the conflict in which England was about to
engage would last, and to what issues it might finally be con-
Position of ducted, it was impossible to foretell. But to anyone
Cal. who, like Bristol, had a full knowledge of the events
which had recently been passing in Spain, it must have been
evident that the league which appeared to be springing up
between the Prince of Wales and the English nation could not by
any possibility be longlived. It was to no purpose that Charles
had listened to the explosion of loyalty which had greeted his
return ; it was" to no purpose that he found himself acci-

1623 II,'.xtRZIA'E PRUcECTS. I73

than ever Buckingham's life was so completely bound up wth
his life, at,d Buckingham's objects were for the most part so
"rteir,ar- fully served by promoting his young master's wishes,
like designs, that differences of opinion were seldom likely to
arise between them. Now that a difference had arisen,
Charles had proved to be in the wrong, whilst Bucking-
ham had proved to be in the right, and that too on a
point on which Charles might well think that his friend
had been more jealous for his honour than he had been him-
self.
t3oth Charles and t3uckingham had come back with the full
persuasion that they had been duped by the Spaniards, and with
a full determination to take their revenge. To the heated
imagination of the youthful politicians, the re-conquest of the
Palatinate seemed very easy. In fact, the enterprise was one
of exceeding difficulty. Not only was the position of Spain and
the Imperialists exceedingly strong, but there were elements of
disunion at work amongst the opponents of the House of Austria
which would go far to make the task of organising a successful
resistance impossible.
The first task, however, which offered itself to Buckingham
was harder in appearance than in reality. It might seem
j,,, easier to drag Theseus from his seat of pain than
tr,i,, to to move James to a declaration of war. A lover
regain the
Palatinate. of peace by temperament and by force of reason,
he knew too well what faults had been committed on both
sides to be eager to join in the doubtful fray. Great, too, as
was the influence exercised over him by his favourite and his
son, it is hardly likely that this alone would have sufficed to
overcome his reluctance to embark on so arduous an under-
taking. In x62o, in spite of his unwillingness to displease those
with whom he was in continual intercourse, Charles and
Buckingham, backed by the almost unanimous voice of his
Council and his Court, had in vain urged him to take part in
the strife. At the close of 623 he was no longer in a posi-
tion to offer resistance. His plan for settling the affairs of
Germany with the hel l) of Spain had broken down COml)letely.
Even he was driven to acknowledge that thal path was no

64 t;I?EStt OI'tt?TURES F1703I SPAL': 75

great plan which Buckingham had conceived. Ever since the
war had broken out in Germany, France had given
H opes of a
'rench a- a passive, but not the less a real, assistance to the
i-nce. Emperor. Now, however, hints had reached Buck-
ingham that all this might be changed. While Charles was still
at Madrid, an English friar named Grey had formed the wild
project of converting him; and, when he found that he had
no chance of success, had talked with Buckingham of his own
influence with Mary de Medicis, and of the probability that she
might be induced to offer her youngest daughter, the Princess
Henrietta Maria, as a substitute for the Infanta. How fa
Buckingham gave heed to the friar's prattle it is hard to say.
At all events Grey made his way to Paris, saw the Queen
Mother, and was sent on by her to London, after the Prince's
return, to explain to Buckingham her readiness to assist in
forwarding the suggested marriage. It is true that when the
affair came to the ears of Tillires, the French ambassador
in London, both Mary and Buckingham thought it expedient
to disavow all knowledge of the intrigue ; but the seed vas
already sown. James agreed to take up the project as soon as
:he treaty with Spain was definitely disposed of. In the mean-
vhile it was arranged that Lord Kensington should be sent over
to Paris to feel the ground, and to lay the foundations of a
complete friendship between the two courts.
Although James had thus givell his consent to the opening
of a negotiation vhich would leave little room for any further
Ja,. 3. understanding with Spain, his resolution was not so
nfrrofth fixed as to be entirely beyond the influence of a
Spanish am-
baao, specious offer from the other side. On January  3,
the Spanish ambassadors, Ino.josa and Coloma. assured him of
their master's anxiety to do all that was possible to regain his
friendship. Before the end of August, they asserted, all that
part of the Palatinate which was occupied by Spanish troops
should be placed in his hands. Negotiations should be opened,
at a time to be fixed by James himself, for the settlement of all

.. Dec. o 8 *Y Hal. IISS. 4593, R,I. 3,
t Tillires to Pm-xeux, 3. ' Jan. , uz,
16, 5 b.

624 BAVARIAN OFFERS. t8 t

brought before him from another quarter. A Capuchin friar,
Negotiation travelling under the assumed name of Francesco
of le della Rota, appeared in England, with offers from
Rot. the new Elector of Bavaria. The Elector, like the
Emperor, was ready to yield much for the sake of peace. The
only difference in their terms was, that whilst Ferdinand required
that Frederick's son and heir should be educated at Vienna,
.Maximilian required that he should be educated at Munich,
or, if James preferred it, under some Catholic prince elsewhere.
Of course there was much said about offering all possible safe-
guards for the boy's religion; but what was the value of such
safeguards to a youth brought at the most impressionable age
within the circle of the ideas of the Catholic priesthood ?*
To this plan James gave a distinct refusal; but it was
easier for him to see what was not to be done than to decide,
The breach for himself and others, what he wished to do. As
with Spain the Commissioners would not settle his difficulties
referred to
Parliament. for him, the whole question sas referred to the
coming Parliament.
By the time the consultations of the Commissioners were
brought to a close the elections were ahnost completed. In
Te e|ec- ordinary times the House of Commons was brought
tions, into existence under very composite influences. In
the counties the choice of the great landowners weighed heavily
upon the freeholders. In the smaller boroughs the owner of
some neighbouring manor, to whom the citizens were bound
by the obligations of ancestral courtesy, or immediate interest,
could often dispose of the seat at his pleasure. The Govern-
ment, too, was not without influence. The boroughs of
Lancashire and the sea-coast towns of Kent, for instance, were
in the habit of returning nominees of the Chancellor of the
Duchy, or of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. In this
way the House came to represent not merely the mass of
electors, but also the effective strength of the nation. The men
who took part in its debates were men who were accustomed as

 Rusdorf, 2Igmoh-es, i.
)lIadrid Palace Libra,.

x56-z39. Inolosa to Philip IV., Feb.

x6--.4 OP.EWI.VG OF TIlE SESSION'. x8 3
The speech with which James opened his last Parliament
was couched in a tone of unusual hesitation. "l-he old self-
confidence with which, in his happier days, he had
Feb. x 9.
Opening of sought tO school hs hearers into submission, had
Parliament. entirely left him. Convinced at last that peace could
no longer be maintained unless he abandoned as unattainable
the object for which he had striven so long, and yet shrinking
with his whole soul from opening the floodgates of war, he
The King's was equally unwilling to turn his back upon h;s old
speel,, policy, or to enter heartily upon a new one. Casting
himself upon the compassion of his hearers, he pleaded before.
them the anxiety with which he had striven to deserve his
people's love ; and told the Houses how, as a pledge of his con-
fidence in them, he was come to ask their advice in the greatest
matter that ever could concern an)" king. He had hoped to settle
peace abroad and at home. But he now knew what the pre-
tensions of Spain really were. The whole story would be told
them by his Secretaries, who would be assisted by the Prince
and Buckingham. "When you have heard it all," he added,
"I shall entreat your good and sound advice, for the glory
of God, the peace of the kingdom, and weal of my children.
Never king gave lnore trust to his subjects than to desire their
advice in matters of this weight; for I assure you ye may
fi'eely advise lne, seeing of nay princely fidelity . ou are invited
thereto."
Having thus removed the prohibition which had brought
about the dissolution of the last Parlialnent, James turned to a
Exp'ains subject on which his hearers were peculiarly sensitive.
,hahe ha " I pray yOU," he said, "judge me charitably as you
done about
the Caho- will have me judge you ; for I never made public nor
lies. private treaties but I always made a direct reserva-
tion for the weal public and cause of religion, for the glory of
God and the good of my subjects. I only thought good some-
times to wink and connive at the execution of some penal
statutes, and not to <o on so rigorously as at other times ; but

accept the office of Lord Steward. It was written after Hamilton's death
in I625, and will be noticed in its proper place.

,84 391SSOLUTION OF TIlE TREATIES. CH. XLVIL

to dispense with any, to forbid or alter any that concern reli-
gion, I neither promised nor yielded. I never did think it with
my heart, nor speak it with lny mouth. It is true a skilful horse-
man doth not always use the spur, but must sometimes use the
bridle, and sometimes the spur. So a king that governs evenly
is not bound to carry a rigorous hand over his subjects upon all
occasions, but may sometimes slacken the bridle, yet so as his
hands be not off the reins."
Such words were very far from being a full and fair repre-
sentation of the past negotiations. But they were at least in
accordance with what James had wished to do, and
How far was
this state- were not very far from that which, by some stretch
ment true? of imagination, he may have fancied himself to have
done. They give an accurate account of his first offers to Spain
in i62o ; and when, in 623, he went much farther, he had at
least reserved to himself, by a protest, the right of cancelling
his obligations, if reason of state should so require. It is hardly
likely, however, that the Commons, if they had known the
whole story, would have told it in the same way.
After a few more words, James retired from the scene. He
had thrown down the reins of govermnent, and there was one
Arrange- standing by who was eager to take them from his
nent fo failing hands. Jalnes, it is true, had told the Houses
Bucking-
hare'sap- that the information for which they were looking
peaance, would be communicated to them by his Secretaries,
with the assistance of Buckingham and the Prince. But so sub-
ordinate a part would hardly have suited Buckingham. Before
the appointed day arrived it was understood that the commu-
nication would be made by the Duke, and that the Secretaries,
and even the Prince himself, would be content to give him what
assistance he might need. The Houses were to assemble, not
as usual in the Painted Chamber, but in the great hall of the
palace, where they were accustomed to wait upon the King.
If Buckingham had said, "I am the King," he could not have
expressed himself more plainly.

t Conway to Buckingham, July 2L 623, tlardwicke S. _P. i. 43 O.
bee p. 7 o.

-88 DISSOLUTIOV OF THE TREATIES. CH. XLVL
Although the question thus raised could hardly be passed
over in silence, the leaders of the House were too anxious to get
'rhequestion to the important work before them to give it much
referred to a
committee, encouragement. The whole subject was referred to
a committee, and was never heard of again) ,
Weston was at last able to proceed with his report.
there had ever been any hesitation in accepting Buckingham's
Feb. 26. narrative, there was none now. Inojosa and Coloma
Complaint of had done their best to convert him into a national
the bpanish
ambador hero. Hurrying to James, they assured him that if
against
; -ki,,g- one of their master's servants had spoken of the King
ba. of England as Buckingham had spoken of the King
of Spain, he would lmve paid the penalty with the loss of his head.
James's only thought in the presence of the fiery Spaniards was
to shift the burthen of a reply to other shoulders than his own.
He had not been present at Whitehall, he said, when Bucking-
Imm's narrative was delivered, and he must therefore leave it to
those who heard it to justify or to condemn him. In the House
of Lords, Pembroke, who had now thrown himself
Feb. 2 7 .
Buckingham unreservedly on Buckingham's side, led the way in
supported by
Wnia,*nt. exculpating him, and a motion in his favour was
unanimously carried. In the Commons the excitement was
far greater. "In the way that Buckingham holds," said Phelips,
" I pray that he shall keep his head on his shoulders to see
thousands of Spaniards' heads either from their shoulders or in
the seas." " And shall he lose his head ?" cried Coke. "Never
an)- man deserved better of his king and country." A vote, as
unanimous as that of the Lords, cleared Buckingham from
blame in the words that he had used. 
t Mr. Forster thought (Sir . l.liot, i. 43) that the speeches of Alford
and Phelips leave little doubt that they had received private communica-
tions from Buckingham. It is quite possible that some understanding had
been arrived at, probably through Pembroke; but there is no proof of
this, and there is no necessity to resort to thi explanation. According
to Nicholas's notes (S. 20. Dora. clix), of which Mr. Forster made no
use, Phelips said that ' since this motion is on foot, he thinks it should not
rest unresolved,' which looks as if he at least expected something to come
of the committee.
z Inojosa to Philip IV. Feb. 26 Jlradrid 20alace Library. Coloma tt,
'*iarch 7'

9o DISSOLUTION OF THE TREATIES. CH. XLWR
not come within the domain of practical politics, and Rud-
yerd, of all men, was the least likely to conceive its existcce
For him it needed no argument to prove that a breach of the
negotiations was tantamount to a declaration of war, and he
advised the House to ' petition, that his Majesty would entcr
nto a confederacy with his friends abroad, and endeavour
to re-collect and re-unite that scattered and broken party of
the religion in Germany  that he would strengthen his forts
within this kingdom; that he would send out a competent
number of ships to discover and resist such danger as may
happen; that he would really and roundly assist the Low
Countries; and whensoever he intends to make war for the
Palatinate, that he would make it neat hand by way of diversion
to save charges, whither every younger brother that had but
zo/. in his purse may go stocked for a profession and course of
life; and where the 1.9w Countries, no doubt, will be willing
and ready to assist us for their own interest, which i. lhe motive
of all States.' 
So much was said, at the commencenaent of the next reign,
about an alleged breach of the understanding come to in this
session between the House of Commons and the
What did
R.a-a s Crown, that it is worth vhile to pause for a moment
for ?
to ask what was the nature of the demand made by
Rudyerd, undoubtedly with the assent, if not at the instigation,
of Buckingham and the Prince.  Nothing can be plainer than
that the idea of a Continental war was placed in the back-
ground, if not negatived altogether. Diplomatic intervention
there vas to be in Germany, accompanied, perhaps, with some
aid in money from the English exchequer, in order to raise an
opposition t the Spanish and Imperialist armies. ]3ut English
military operations were to be confined to the Low Countries,
and whatever more was done was to take the form of a diver-
sion, that is to say, the form of an attack by sea upon the
Spanish fleets and the Spanish Indies. A new generation of
Drakes and Raleighs was to be called into existence, to continue
 Rudyerd's speech, S. _P./)o#. clx. 8.
"-' In the next year he stated that he had not received instructions ficm
either. Probably his intercourse was with Pembroke.

524 C`4RO2VDELET ,4 T CO URT. 207

repulse which they had met, nothing more than the result
of the overbearing self-will of 13uckingham. It was not hard
Spanish for them to construct out of rumour, partly true
intrigues, and partly false, the idea that the King was held in
actual physical durance, by the arts of his favourite ancl his
son, and they irnagined that if they could only succeed for
an instant in gaining the ear of James, the whole monstrous
edifice which Buckingham had constructed would topple down
of itself.
Their first d'.'.fficulty arose from their knowledge that they
were never allowed to see James in private. When they were
admitted to an audience 13uckingham was always present,
ready to remove any impression they might chance to make, the
moment they had left the room. This hindrance to freedom
"rh King is of speech they determined to ' break through at the
akdCarondeetto e earliest opportunity.' On March 9, the day on which
in private, they were summoned to hear from the King's lips
the announcement that negotiations were at an end, whilst
Inojosa engaged the Prince and Buckingham in conversation,
Coloma offered James a paper which he requested him to put
in his pocket till he found himself alone. The paper, when
opened, proved to contain a request that the King would give a
private audience to Carondelet, who had already served as a
medium of the secret communications between the King and
the anabassadors. The audience was granted on April , and
.pri . James explained to Carondelet, as he had explained
Caronaeet'S to the ambassadors before, that he had no thought
audience, of breaking with Spain if he could have the as-
surances for which he had persistently asked. Nothiug that
Carondelet could say had any effect to draw hitn from this
position. The restitution of his children, he said, was of all
things next to his heart. He was engaged to effect it by his
honour, his reputation, and his promises. If the King of Spain
would not comply with his request, he must use the forces which
God had put into his hands to effect his object. " In no way,"
James ended by saying, "ill I suffer any further delay. I
wsh to be prepared for peace, if it is possible to have it, and
also for war, if it is forced upon me. With Spain I do not at

24 DISSOLUTION OF TIlE TREI TIES. cH. XLVI1.
What he asserted in his despatch was nothing more than
what he had said plainly to Carondelet. He broke off the
treaties because the King of Spain had given him no reason
to slppose that he intended to assist him in the forcible re-
covery of the Palatinate. James may perhaps have retained a
lingering hope that Philip might still be moved to give the
required promise, but to all except himself the breach thus made
was final and irreparable.
Buckingham's sanguine and incisive temper had carried
him safely up to this point. Would it serve him equally well
when he came to proceed to positive action ? It is
l)iffiulties
itt o b far easier to put an end to negotiations than to con-
'''" duct a war. He would no longer have the full assur-
ance of the support of the House of Commons. If he had been
on the side of Parliament against the King in wishing to make
the breach with Spain complete, he was on the side of the King
against Parliament in wishing to make a close alliance with
France the main feature of his foreign policy. That he was
in the right in shrinking from going to war without French aid
cannot reasonably be doubted, but it remained to be seen at
what price that aid was to be purchased.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

BUCKINGHAM'S ASCENDENCY.

}[ENR," RICH, Viscount Kensington, had arrived in Pans on
February I5, charged with a confidential mission. Without
making auy absolute overtures, he was to sound the
Feb. x 5.
Kensington disposition of the French Court towards a marriage
in Paris. between Charles and the Princess Henrietta Maria,
the youngest sister of Louis XIII. Unlike his elder brother,
the Earl of Warwick, the speculator in buccaneering adven-
tures in the r.eign of James and the pious Lord Admiral
of the Commonwealth, Kensington had been fitted by nature
to gain in the drawing-room the success which was denied
him in the senate and the field. Without force of character
or intellectual ability, he had early taken his place in that train
of flatterers whose ready services were so pleasing to Bucking-
ham, and were of so little value in the hour of trial ; and it
was to the satisfaction which he had thus given to his patron
that he owed his high position at Court, his peerage, and at
last his selection as messenger of love to the Freuch Princess.
Kensington's journey was extremely well-timed. Louis
had at last taken alarm at the position which Spain and the
allies of Spain occupied on his frontiers. The proud
La Vieu-
ville's flag of Philip waved from the Netherlands in the
ministry, north, over an ahnost uninterrupted series of forti-
fications, through the Palatinate, Franche Corot6, the Milanese
Duchy, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, to the spot where the
Pyrenees lower their crests as they sink towards the waters of
the Atlantic. Behind this martial barrier was now arising once
more the shadowy form of the olcl Empire which had been

bright-eyed girl in her fifteenth year. " My Lord," he wrote to
Buckingham, " she is a lovely sweet young creature. Her
a'el%incess growth is not great yet, but her shape is perfect.:'
rnriett, She had seldom, he had been informed, 'put on a
Maria.
more cheerful countenance than that night.' "There
were some," he added, "that told me I might guess the cause.
of it."
Of soft glances and merry speeches Kensington was an apt
reporter. It was not long before he had to turn his attention
to more serious work. Ill-advised as any marriage
Kensington's
id.bot with a Roman Catholic could not fail to be, in the
the alliance, existing state of English public feeling, both Jmnes
and Buckingham wished this marriage to be at least the seal of
an effectual military alliance, and they expected to proceed
simultaneously with the two negotiations. Kensington soon
made himseff the mouthpiece of the French court in advising
the contrary course. "For I doubt," he wrote, " whether it may
not be thought a little dishonourable for this king to give his
sister conditionally that, if he will make war upon the King of
Spain his brother, we will make the alliance with him.
But if we fall speedily upon a treaty and conclusion of a mar-
riage, the which will find, I am persuaded, no long delays here,
neither will they strain us to any unreasonableness in conditions
for our Catholics, as far as I can find ; then will it be a fit time
to conclude a league, the which they will then for certain do
when all doubts and fears of falling off are by this conjunction
taken away." 1
It was truly a golden prospect, but even to Charles it did
not seem quite satisfactory after his experience in Spain. The
rince wished the general league of friendship to
March 3.
Dissent of precede the negotiation of the marriage treaty.  Ken-
Chs. sington characteristmally replied by assuring Charles
that all would come right in the end, by praising the Princess,

 Kensington to Buckingham, Feb. 16, Feb. 26 (both letters printed
without a date), Cabala, 29% 86. Kensington to Conway, March 4,
'. P. Frame.
 We learn the Prince's opinion from Kens'ngton's answer to Bucking.
ham's letter cf March 3" It is dated March 9, S. t . France.

-8 tTUCA'INGttAM"S ASCENDENCY. CH. XLVIII.

who was ' for beauty and goodness an angel,' and by recounting
how she, having borrowed a miniature of the Prince which hung
about his neck,'opened it with such haste as showed a true picture
of her passion, blushing in the instant of her own guiltiness.'
All this was very delightful to a lover, but it would not go
far to help on the political alliance between the two kingdoms.
Sir Edward Herbert, who had returned to France as
April
HerbrCs ambassador after the death of Luynes, and who knew
opinion on
the policyof the country too well to be deceived by the gossip of
Vr.-ne. the Queen Mother or the blushes of a girl of four-
teen, formed an opinion very different from that of Kensington.
The object of the French, as he thought, was to make themselves
arbiters between England and the House of Austria ; he therefore
advised his master to bring them 'to some real and infallible
proofs' of their intention to assist England ' in the recovery of
the Palatinate, at the same time or before ' the marriage treaty
was discussed. Otherwise they would 'want no excuse to keep
themselves in peace of neutrality.' Herbert was the more con-
firmed in this view of the case by his knowledge that I.ouis was
anxious to send a diplomatic agent named Marescot to the
Elector of Bavaria. So unpalatable to the French King was
the remonstrance made against this proposal by the ambassador,
that means were taken to induce James to recall him ; and, in
fact, the letter ordering him to return home had been already
despatched before his last note of warning reached England. 
Herbert had been guilty of seeing too clearly where the real
difficulty lay. Whatever interest Louis had in the matter lay
in opposing Spain, and Spain alone. As a devout
Vas France
!ikely to help Catholic he would naturally wish to confine his opera- ..
 erm,y? tions in Germany within the narrowest possible limits.
To send an embassy to the Elector of Bavaria was precisely the
step likely to be taken by a man in his position. The victories
of Tiily and the League would have been positively gratifying
to him if they had merely resulted in the depression of Pro-
 Kensington to the Prince, March 9, Cabala, 288.
 Herbert to Calvert, Jan. 26, Feb. 6, 5Iarch o. Herbert to the
King, April 3, S. 1
I-arl. 315"S. 4593, fol. 94 b. April

1624 THE PtLATIN.47E .4ND TIlE VtLT.ELLIA't::. 29

testantism and could have been dissociated from the formidable
growth of the Spanish power. To join James in driving
out Catholic rule and Catholic worship from the Palatinate
might possibly be regarded by Louis in the light of a political
necessity, but it would never be considered by him as desirable
in itself. The overtures which had been made to James in
vain through Francesco della Rota, weri certain to be accept-
able to Louis, as by placing the education of Frederick's children
in Maximilian's hands, they would, if adopted, almost inevitably
lead to a rivalry between the Bavarian and the Austrian families.
Nor was the divergence of the views of the two kings about
the Palatinate the only difficulty in the way of a cordial CO-
The French operation between France and England. Louis had
anxious
about the a Palatinate of his own in the Valtelline, that long
Valtelhne. and narrow valley which, stretching from the l,ake
of Como to the "l'yrc, lese mountains, offered the only way of
communication by which Spanish armies could pass from Italy
into Germany without encroaching upon the possessions of states
more or less openly hostile. This territory was now in the grasp
of Spain by a very qucstionable title. The Roman Catholics,
who formed ahnost the entire population, had been treated
with extreme harshness by the Protestant Grison Leagues, the
masters of the whole valley. In i62o the people of the Valtel-
line rose against their oppressors, massacred the few Protestants
upon whom they could lay their hands, and called the Spanish
governor of Milan to their help. In spite of the remonstrances
of France, the Spaniards took the aggressive and carried fire
and sword into the heart of the Grison mountains. At last a
league of resistance was formed between France, Venice, and
Savoy, and in the spring of i623, Spain nominally relinquished
its authority over the Valtelline and entrusted the valley to the
Pope. Spanish garrisons, however, still occupied the principal
fortified posts, and the King of Spain refused to withdraw them
unless the right of passage through the Valtelline were secured
to his soldiers by treaty. In 1624 matters were still unchanged,
and French politicians were looking forward to a war for the
recovery of the Valtclline as eagerly as English politicians were
looking forward to a war for the recovery of the Palatinate.

then, and not before, would be the time to consider what was
to be done ilx Germany.
To anyone with an eye to see, it was obvious, from the shape
which the first project of French co-operation with England
Ma.sfeld in took, that nothing more was meant. If there was a
Holland.
man in Europe who was unfit to stand ,at the head
of any serious movement in Germany, that man was Mansfeld.
That unscrupulous adventurer knew how to plunder friend and
oe better than he knew how to conduct war. By the Catholics
he was regarded with a well-deserved ferocity of hatred, whilst
nil Protestants who had anything to lose shrank from him as
the)" would shrink from the plague. He had not even the merit
of success. "]'o send Mansfeld into Germany was to invite de-
feat by the provocation which his mere presence would give.
Earl)" in the spring, Mansfeld was once more in Hollatd,
looking out for n empioyer. The great German war, for a
moment, had sunk down into quietude, and it seemed as if the
Emperor's authority would be acknowledged from the North
ea to the &lps. At this moment Du ]Xlaurier, the French
ambassador in Holland, dvised 1Mansfeld to go to France.
His visit to Upon his arrival Louis, for form's sake, refused to
'" see him, but he sent to tell him that he might
be employed in an attack upon Franche Comt in order to
divert the Spanish troops in the Netherlands from sending re-
inforcements to the Valtelline. As soon s Mansfeld's assent
was gained he was sent over into England to persuade James
to take upon himself a share of the expenses of the undertaking.
.,s the reconquest of the Valtelline would have an appreciable
effect in dininishing the power of the House of Austria, it
annot be said that the scheme was one or purely French
iraterest, but it was certain that nithcr James nor the English
Parliament would contemplate with satisfaction such a use of
English troops or of English money.
The difficulties in the way of the French alliance were not
: t ,, Se non si trovasse modo d'aiutare negotio della Valtellinadovera
esere impieato dalla Francia all' invasione della Borgona Contesa."
Siri../cm. ,'ec. v. 26. Siri wrote from the despatch of the Florentine
agent in Pans.

z-4 I,UCA'I2VGHA II'S .,4SCEA'DEA'C]: CH. XLVIII.

Against the policy which was indicated by these measures,
*.he Spanish ambassadors struggled with all their might. On
April zo. the 2oth, I.afuente had another audience at Theo-
le,ageof balds, at whmh neither the Prince nor Buckingham
I .afuente to 
James. was present, q'h lnessage which he carried was
such as has seldom been presented by the ambassadors of a
nominally fi-iendly state. He had to say that the house in
which Inojosa and Coloma resided was carefully watched, so
that no visitor dared to enter it. It was useless for them to ask
fi)r all audience, as they were never allowed to see his Majesty
except in the presence of the l)uke. James's own subjects
regretted to see him thus reduced to a mere shadow, and the
most important affairs of state submitted to the judgment of
a Parliament of which nany members were mere boys, and
of those who were of full age many were men of low estate.
Constantly James's name was being used in support of designs
of which he heartily disapproved, and in opposition to designs
of which he heartily approved. Men turned from the King to
the Prince, as to the rising sun.
Then came a graver charge against Buckingham. The
Electress Palatine had proposed to him that her eldest son
should marry his daughter. In this way, he might hope that,
if Charles relnained unmarried, l-.is own grandchild would be
King of England. With this prospect before hiln, he intended
to frustrate Charl_s s marriage with a French Princess, as he had
already frustrated his marriage with a Spanish Infanta. The
declaration which had been made by the Prince at Bucking-
ham's instigation, that he would allow no toleration except to
his wife and her household, had already rnade it impossible for
the King of France to consent to give his sister where condi-
tions so debasing were to be enforced.
Lafuente next proceeded to a long impeachment of Buck-
mgham's conduct. He told how he had borne himself in
Spain with insolence both to the Prince and to the King ; how
he had introduced light women into his apartment in the
Palace itself, and close to the rooms occupied by the Prince ;
how, after his return, he had revealed to members of Parliament
the secret of the treaty for the pamtion of the Netherlands,

t64 ZAFUENTE ACCUSES BUCA'ING.rlA.|L .2
a.nd of the oath taken by the King and Prince to obtain within
three years from the Parliament an Act confirming the liberty
of conscience promised to the Catholics.
If James wished, continued Lafuente, to discover the truth
o! these charges, he had better begin by dissolving Parliament.
Its members were Puritans, and as such they wished to be with-
out a king, whilst the Catholics were always loyal subjects.
James replied that he was ready to forbid Buckingham to
be present when the anabassadors next waited on him. Lafuente
was quite right about the Puritans. They loved parity, not
purity. He would never take money from the Commons on
the condition that he was to persecute the Catholics. He
would rather dissolve Parliament and send it to the devil. As
for the charges against the Duke, he doubted whether they
were really true. l
Either from the vacillating weakness which had now become
part of his nature, or from the natural recoil from the evident
over-statement by Lafuente of his case against Buckingham,
James acted in a way which must have caused grievous dis-
,*prii s. appointment to the ambassadors. On the 23rd, in
,,oswr,o answering the Commons' petition against the recu-
the recu-
, v. sants he expressed himself favourably to the request
tition, laid before him. He considered hilnself unfortunate,
he said, to need a spur to do that which his conscience and
duty bound him to do. His heart had bled when he had heard
of the increase of Popery. If he had known any way better
than another to hinder its growth he would have taken it. Yet
he had abstained from persecution, nothing being more likely
to increase a religion. He was now ready to banish the priests,
and to direct the judges to put the penal laws in execution.
His subjects should be forbidden to frequent the houses of
foreign ambassadors, or to bring up their children in the Roman
Catholic faith. As for the request that no immunity for the
English Catholics should be included in any treaty for his son's
raarriage, he heartily assented to it. "Now," he said, "for the
last part of your petition. You have therein given me the best
t Lafuente to Philip IV. May t_o .IadrM lala,c Library.
0 
V0L. V. Q

".,.8 BUCKINGH,,?d'S ASCENDENCY. CH, XLVttt

Ino}osa had not improved his position. On May 2 the
members of the Privy Council were called upon to answer a
lay ,. series of interrogatories which had been prepared in
The Privy order to sift the matter to the bottom. One by one
Council
un,,,,oned. the councillors swore that they had never heard any
traitorous expression proceed from Buckingha).n's mouth. Ino-
josa's attempt to conjure with the wand of Gondomgr had failed
entirely. When he came the next day to present his letters of
recall, James refused to accept them. He must see him again,
he said, before he left England. Some who were present hinted
that there were precedents for calling ambassadors to account
before the House of Lords ; but to these rash advisers James
turned a deaf ear. Such precedents, he answered, had been
found to cut off his mother's head. He would not, however.
let the Spaniard go till he had inquired whether his conduct
was approved of by his master. Inojosa complained in vain of
the treatment to which he was subjected. James told him that
he must either prove his case or acknowledge his accusation to
be false, t
Inojosa's information was believed at the time to have been
derived from Middlesex, who was supposed to have hazarded
this desperate step to save himself from ruin? Of
Middlesex
.upports t),e the five Privy Councillors who in the beginning of
Spaniards. the year had taken the most determined stand against
a breach with Spain, I,ennox was dead ; Williams had made
his peace with Buckingham ; Arundel, though doubtless hold-
ing the same opinion still, was maintaining a prudent silence;
Calvert was only waiting for a fit opportunity to declare him-
self a Roman Catholic, and to retire from public life ; whilst
28% fancying that it was probably drawn up by the Earl of Somerset, for
the very insufficient reason that he found it amongst other papers connected
with Somerset, and there may have been people who have been under the
impression that there is, in this way, evidence in existence to show that
Somerset was at this time trying to oust Buckingham from the King's
favour. The paper was drawn up by Lafuente, and a copyofit in Spanish
is in the Ia,trid Palace Library.
t Locke to Carleton, May 8 ; D. Carleton to Carleton, May 2I S. 2
Pore. clxiv. 53, clxv. I; Salvetti's A'ews-Leller, May
I7)
"-' D. C::-leten t,, Caflet.,n. May 3, S. /'. Dora. cxiv.

624 .]IIDDLESE.Y OPPOSES 17UCA"LVGttAM'. 229
Middlesex stood alone in attempting to stem the torrent. To
an economical administrator of the finances Buckingham's
lavish expenditure could never be congenial. The Lord Trea-
surer, whose business it was to think how money could be saved,
had often winced under the pressure put upon him by the Lord
Admiral, whose pleasure it was to think how money could be
spent. Unless men were much lnistaken, he had attempted,
just as the Prince was starting for Madrid, to supersede Buck-
ingham in the Royal favour with the help of his brother-in-law,
Arthur Brett. The )oung man had been ordered to travel on
the Continent, and a seeming reconciliation had been effected.
Now Buckingham's enormities had reached their height. Be-
fore the eyes of the minister, who had built up a surplus
out of a deficit by the unremitting labour of years, a war with
Spain opened visions of distress which were not to be counter-
balanced by any prospect of national glory. He had no faith
in the popular belief that the certain expenditure might easily
be recouped by the capture of Spanish treasure-ships. Whilst
Buckingham and the Commons were discounting the chances
of the future, the old City merchant expressed his doubt of the
value of the security offered.
To the Prince, Middlesex had given special offence. Vhen
the question of the Spanish marriage was being considered after
Charles's return from Spain, all the other councillors who ob-
jected to seeing it broken off, qualified their opinions by saying
that, if the Prince had taken any dislike to the person of the
lady, it would be a sufficient reason for putting an end to the
engagement. Middlesex alone expressed himself otherwise.
Whether his Highness, he argued, wished to marry the Infanta
or not, it was his duty to do so ' for reason of state and the good
that would thence redound to all Christendom,' for 'he supposed
that the Prince ought to submit his private distaste therein to
the general good and honour of the kingdom.' "Whereupon,'
said Williams, who told the story long afterwards, 'the Prince
bid him judge of his merchandises, if he would, for he was no
arbiter in points of honour.' 
Middlesex, however, had the King's ear. If James listened to
 Dillon's Articles .against Williams, I634 (?), S. P. 1)ore. cclxxx. 77.

-3o BUCKINGHA3I'S ASCENDEVCY. cA. XLWlL
Lafuente or to Inojosa, if he sunk back from time to time into
A,th,r rtt his old dislike of war, Buckingham attributed it all
in W,gl,,d. tO Middlesex. Before the end of March the reurn
of Arthur Brett to England brou.ht matters to a crisis. Bucking-
ham resolved that Middlesex and the King should be separated.
In a momcut, charges sprang up against the Lord Trea-
surer, whose economy had made him man), enemies, and who
had doubtless committed some faults. He had been
Charges
against harsh and imperious in his bearing, and had neglected
iaaleex. on some occasions to observe the due formalities of
his office. In taking care of his master's fortunes he had not
forgotten to think of his own ; and at a time when the practice
of high officials was very loosc, he had probably done enough
fairly to expose himself to the charge of malversation.
As it had been with Bacon, so it was now with Middlesex.
Many things said against him were exaggerated. Some of his
actions might be palliated, as being in accordance with the usual
practice. Some things which formed the subject of accusation
were even to his praise. But after all allowances have been
made, there remains enough to show that he had done things
which he ought never to have done.
On April x5 the charges against Middlesex were laid before
the Peers by Coke and Sandys. In Bacon's case complaints
made by individuals had merely been sent up for in-
April  5-
Hisina- vestigation. This time the Commons took a higher
peachment.
tone. Reviving in all its fulness the old practice of
impeachment, they asked for justice as the grand jury of the
t Part of a letter, in the possession of Lord Buckhurst, which is thus
abstracted in the fourth report of the Historical iXISS. Commission, shows
that there was afterwards a revulsion of feeling in his favour, grounded on
the recollection of his services :--" Two days since, the Committee of
Twelve being in examination what the Duke hath gotten out of the King's
revenue, Sir Robert Pye took occasion to inform them that Middlesex
had gotten from the King in a short time I2O, oOoL, and therefore moved
that he might be likewise examined ; to vhich Sir J. Eliot, being in the
chair, answered that it might be true for aught he knev to the contrary ;
but that it vas true that Middlesex had merited well of the King, and had
done him that service that few had ever done, but they could find no sach
matter in the Duke." Harman to Midd'lesex, May 3, 1626.

1624 END OF TIlE SESSION. 235
beginning of his speech James had protested that he had never
ceased to care for the Palatinate, and had assured the Houses
that if they met again with the same resolution as they had
cherished in the past session, it would be the happiest Parlia-
ment known in history. Before he ended he remembered that he
had attempted in vain to induce the Commons to insert into the
Subsidy Bill a clause naming the recovery of the Palatinate as
one of the objects of the grant.  Whereas, he said, they 'had
made the preamble without his advice, and so as it might be pre-
judicial to him for some reasons of state, he must be forced to
alter it, and set his marginal note upon it.' At this extraordinary
and unexpected declaration the usual respect for the
Dissatisfac-
tion of the Royal person was for an instant forgotten, and those
Commons. who were present gave vent to their dissatisfaction in
nmmmrs and gesticulations. " Thus," wrote an eye-witness of
the scene, "parted we from his Majesty, with much more dis-
content and fear of the success of this Parliament than when
we came together at the beginning with hope of a good and
happy prosecution." 
The session which thus came to an end was one of no slight
importance in the development of our Parliamentary constitu-
tion. Headed by the Prince of Wales, the House of Commons
appeared suddenly to have become the first power in the State.
What was wanting to it was the virtue of self-restraint which
springs from experience, and that knowledge of the limitations
of power which is seldom acquired except by those who have
a practical acquaintance with the handling of affairs. Leaders
who could teach them how to walk warily amongst the pitfalls
around them these men had none, and it was only too probable
that before long they would visit with a just retribution those
who had flattered their weaknesses and abused their confidence.
The dissatisfaction of the House with James's last speech
was not entirely justified by his subsequent acts.
Proceedings
against His intemperance was always greater in ord than
Bristol in action. The Subsidy Act was left untouched;
and Middlesex, though his fine was subsequently reduced to
 Locke to Carleton, May 17, S. P. _Dora. clxiv. 9 2.
 Report by -E. Xicholas, ibid. c:,xv. 6.

48

BUCA'INGIIA.1I'S ASCE2VDE2VCt . c4. XLVIII.

did. The military situation would have corresponded with the
pc, litical situation. Account would have been taken of the
.iion of prominent fact that the. King of France and the Pro-
Wake. testant sovereigns were only half agreed. The friction
certain to ensue upon such co operation would have been
diminished to a minimum. Unhappily the three men who
directed the course of affairs in England were notoriously in-
clined to close their eyes to unpleasant facts. Already Mans-
feld had been despatched to France with proposals for a joint
military undertaking. Then followed Sir Isaac Wake, on his
way to Italy to stir up Venice and Savoy. On May  7
lay x 7.
Carie e,t Carlisle set out for Paris to tie the knot between the
to France.
two kingdolns by the flowery bonds of a matrimonial
alliance. James, Char!es, and Buckingham agreed in looking
for the closest possible unity of action between France and
England.

z66 TIZE FRE.VCIZ g]IARRL4GE TREAT]: cr:. XLIX.

Germany had been discouraging. Richelieu had consequently
assured the Elector of Bavaria that he need have no fear of
an attack from France for at least a ),ear, and had instructed
Effiat to lay before James a plan for the pacification of Ger-
many which bore a very close resemblance to those unsatisfac-
tory overtures which had beeu made by Fr,tncesco della Rota
in the precediug winter.
Richelieu was probably right in judging that this was as
much as he could persuade his master to do for some time to
come; perhaps also in judging that it would be unwise for
France to embark iu open war till it was clear that she could
find allies who could be trusted; but when Buckingham passed
his neck under the yoke of the imperious Cardiual, he had
certainly expected more than this.
Towards the eud of September Iansfeld was once more
in England, pressing for men and money. He announced
S-tember. that his English troops, if he could persuade James
afea to entrust him with any, would be allowed to land
again in
r:,.a, between Calais and Gravelines, close to the Flemish
frontier,  aud that Louis was ready to allow him to levy 3,ooo
men, and would, iu conjuuction with his allies, supply money
for their pay. z Yet the French ministers, who had so pertina-
ciously demanded the strictest acknowledgmeut of the rights
of the English Catholics, refused to biud themselves to any
definite course in their military operations by a single liue iu
writing. Iu the meanwhile, Louis wrote to Effiat iuforming
him that what was given to Mausfeld was giveu 'for the affairs
of our league,' that is to say, for the support of his operatious
in the Valtelline. If the men could also be useful to the King
of England and his son-iu-law, he should be glad. After the
marriage had beeu agreed upon, he would be able to deliberate
further. 
t Richelieu, .,]Z,:z. ii. 4o5; Louis XIII. to Effiat, Sept.
,IllS& 4595, fol. 3o7. See p.
 Louis XIII. to Effiat, Sept. 4, ilt'cL fol. 369.
Oct. 4
Sept. 6
 Effiat to Louis XIII., --O-&-' iMcL fol. 7 b.
 Louis XIII. to Effiat, S-t" 3o iiar, fol. 33.
Oct. xo 

t624 LOUIS II'ILL NOT BIND HIDISELF. --67
Such was the position of affairs when the English Parliament
was a second time prorogued. Buckingham, it would seem,
had sold his master's honour for nought. To his
October.
A written thinking, indeed, the only course left to him was to
engagement
,,.nded push blindly on. If he had had his way, 2o,ooo/.
from trance, would have been placed at once in Mansfeld's hands.
The adventurer had an interview with James, who listened, well
pleased, to his talk, and amused him by a recommendation to
ask leave of the Infanta to pass through the Spanish Nether-
lands on his way to the Palatinate. There was, however, still
some prudence left in the English Court. The Council recom-
mended a short delay till Louis had given a written promise to
allow Mansfeld's troops to enter France, and to permit their
employment for the recovery of the Palatinate. In the mean-
while Mansfeld was to go to Holland, to muster some Germans
who were to take part in the expedition. 
In a few days James learned that he had reckoned without
the French in respect both of the marriage and of Mansfeld's
The French army. Carlisle and Holland were plainly told that
refuse to their master's letter, even if countersigned by the
gi,'eo,e. Prince and a Secretary of State, would not suffice,
and were informed at the same time that there could be no
offensive league for the present. "To capitulate in writing,"
said the French ministers, " would but cast rubs in the way of
their dispensation, and make it altogether impossible ; since it
must needs highly offend the Pope to hear they should enter
into an offensive league with heretics against Catholics, and
was like so far to scandalize the Catholic princes of Germany,
as this king should lose all credit with them, whom yet he
hoped to win to their better party." In vain the ambassadors
remonstrated. Not a line in writing could be drawn from the
French ministers. 'They could not,' they said, 'condescend
to anything in writing; but it the King's faith and promise
would serve the turn, that should be renewed to us here, and
 Rusdorf to Frederick, Oct.  A;m. i. 377.
- IZusdorf to Frederick Oct.
, x6 A/din. i. 379, 35t ; Conway to
Carlisle and Holland, tlardwicke S. 29. i. 532.

t624 7t.[ES GII'ES II'A 1: 269
opposed to Olivares had sufficient weight in the Council to
make one more effort to avoid a breach, and a resolution was
taken to send Gondomar once more to England in Coloma's
room. The prospect of seeing the clever Spaniard again
Godomar whispering his words of command in James's ear
to retur, to was very terrible to Buckingham; and who could
r'.,gr.,a, foresee the result if Gondomar should find new and
unexpected allies in the House of Commons ?
If it was to be a question whether the King should give
way to Spain or to France, Charles was sure to place himself
oct. ,9. on Buckingham's side, and he joined in urging his
ca.,,,,o, father to make the required concession. "Your
ports Buck-
mgham, despatch," he wrote to Carlisle, "gave us enough
ado to keep all things from an unrecoverable breach. For nay
father at first startled very much at it, and would scarce hear
reason, which made us fear that his averseness was built upon
some hope of good overtures from Gondomar, vho, they say,
is to be shortly here, though I believe it not ; which made me
deal plainly with the King, telling him 1 would never match
with Spain, and so entreated hma to find a fit match for me.
Though he was a little angry at first, yet afterwards he allowed
our opinions to be reason, which before he rejected." 
It was like Charles to suppose that his father could not be
really influenced by the motives he professed, and to fancy
that it was mapossible for anyone to differ from himself with
any semblance of reason. Yet if the concession xvhich he was
now recommending had been laid before him six months before,
he would doubtless have started back with anaazement and
horror. He had directly engaged that his marriage should
bring ' no advantage to the recusants.' z As for James, a loop-
hole was still left to him. He had promised that 'no such
condition' should be' foisted in upon any other treat), what-
soever.'  He was not asked to do precisely this. He was to
keep his word in the letter, whilst breaking it in the spirit. The
article, separate from the treaty, was to be called a private engage-
merit. As, however, it was to be made as binding as possible by
 The Prince to Carlisle, Oct. 19, S. /'. France.
 Page 222.  Page 226.

1674 THE TEA TI  A TIFIED. 277

Spain after all. The fleet, which in the beginning of the
summer had been gathering in the Spanish harbours, had been
called off across the Atlantic by the news that San Salvador,
in Brazil, had been captured by a Dutch force, and there had,
in consequence, been the less necessity for proceeding hastily
with the equipment of the English navy. Lest Spain should
take umbrage at what little had been done, James explained to
the Infanta's agent that the ships which he was preparing were
intended to convoy the French Princess to England, and to
make reprisals on the Dutch East India Company for the
massacre of Amboyna. At the same time he repeated his
assurance that Mansfeld should not attack Spanish territory. 
When Ville-aux-Clercs arrived, his first task was to obtain
the ratification of the marriage treaty. The King was at Cam-
bridge, suffering from a severe attack of the gout. His hands
were so crippled that, like Henry VIII. in his old age, he had
Iec. x2. been obliged to make use of a stamp, from inability
"rhe mr- to sign his name. On December x 2, however, though
riage treaty
ratified, still suffering, he was sufficiently recovered to be able
to join his son in ratifying the articles of marriage. Much to
the discontent of the Privy Councillors, not one of the number,
excepting Buckingham and Conway, were allowed to be present
at the ceremony.
There remained the private engagement to be signed: "1
the undersigned Charles, Prince of Wales," so ran the words
The private finally agreed upon, " after having seen the promise
engagement, of the Most Serene King of Great Britain, my very
honoured Lord and father, and in conformity with it, promise
on the faith and word of a Prince, both for the present and the
future, in everything that is and shall be in nay power, that, in
contemplation of the Most Serene Princess Madame Henrietta
Maria, sister of the most Christian King of France, I will
promise to all the Roman Catholic subjects of the Crown of
Great Britain the utmost of liberty and franchise in everything

t This xvas probably said about Nov. I9. The declaration is printed
without a date by Villermont, E. de .][ansfeldt, ii. 242. The order for
reprisals on the Dutch had really been given. Conway to Carleton,
'qov. 4 S. 29. dZZolland.

THE LAST DA I'S OF ]A.1IES L CH. 

open complicity of France in the coming war. Louis wished
to involve James in hostilities with Spain whilst himself remain-
ing at peace. If English troops landed at Calais, and then,
accompanied by French cavalry, crossed the frontier into
Flanders or Artois, it would be very difficult for Louis to wash
his hands of the whole matter; whereas if a small body of
cavalry joined Mansfeld's army in Holland, whatever Mansfeld
chose to do might be set down to his own wrongheadedness,
or to the orders of his English superiors.
In the meanwhile, the unlucky men whose destination was
me object of such contention, were gathering to their rendezvous
at Dover. The aid of English troops was not to be
The rendez-
,,ousat despised. The Prince of Orange, who knew them
Dover.
well, used to say that when Englishmen had got
over their first sufferings, they were the bravest men in his
motley army. The ten thousand who had gone out in the
summer had been received by the Dutch with open arms ; but
the)- had advantages which Mansfeld's troops would never have.
They were vohanteers, not pressed men. They had been in-
corporated into the Dutch army, and had gradually learned their
work in the strictest school of discipline then existing in the
world. They would be well clothed and well fed. There may
have been an exaggeration in the popular saying that an English-
man could not fight without his three B's--his bed, his beef,
and his beer--but it was exaggeration which contained a certain
amount of truth.t
All that went to the making of an army was wanting to
Mansfeld's compulsory levies. His men, pressed against their
wtd will, had little heart for the service. The county
condition of Officials, whose duty it had been to select them, had
the men.
too often laid their hands upon those who were most
easily within reach, rather than upon those who were fittest for
the work. "Our soldiers," wrote one who saw a number of
them pass on their way, "are marching on all sides to Dover.
God send them good shipping and success ; but such a rabble
of raw and poor rascals have not lightly been seen, and go so

 Relazioni Venete, Inghilterra 75, 33-

 625 3IAArSFELD'S AR.II Y R UIA'ED. -'289

At Gertruidenberg matters were no better. No preparation
had been made to provide food for such a multitude. " All day
Gret mo- long," wrote Lord Cromwell, who had come out in
tality, comlnand of a regilnent, "we go about for victuals
and bury our dead."  Forty or fifty deaths were recorded
every night. At last Count Frederick Henry, the brother and
heir of the Prince of Orange, came to the relief of the suffering
Englishmen. He sent them meat and bread, and provided
them with straw to cover their freezing limbs as they lay in
the boats. The account which Carleton gave of their suffer-
ings ended in a cry for money. Mansfeld had brought with
him nierely ,ooo/. He was not a man, the English ambassador
thought, to care much for the welfare of his troops. He would
prefer filling up the vacancies with new levies to taking reason-
able care of the old ones. 
What possible use could be made of these ill-starred troops ?
The way to the Palatinate was barred against them by the
March 4. Imperialist armies which had been hurried up to op-
js san pose them, and James persisted in his refusal to allow
refuses to
employ the of their employment at Breda. Had they, indeed,
men at
Breda. been able to march up the Rhine, the diversion might
have been useful to the Dutch. James, however, had no money
to send, and he argued that the French, who had caused all
the mischief, ought to supply the deficiency. If this could not
be done, the States might perhaps advance the 2o,oool. a month
which he had bound himself to pay to Mansfeld. a
The Dutch were not quite inexorable. They allowed their
The Dutch credit to be used to raise a loan of 2o, oool.  They
lend money, perhaps hoped t.hat James would get over the diffi-
culty by accepting a proposal which had been made for plac-
ing Mansfeld under Frederick's orders, who would
March
not be bound by the King of England's engagement.
t, His Majesty," they were told, "cannot yet be moved to think

 Cromwell to  (?), S. P. ollaztd.
* Carleton to Conway, Feb. I4, I8, March , ibid.
s Conway to Carleton, March 4, ibid.
 Memorial of Money raised for Mansfeld, Aug. {?), ibid.
VOL. v. II

304 ]'HE L4ST D4 YS Ol  '4.11ES Z. cH. n.
sovereign the right of maintaining garrisons in certain fortied
places, so as tosecure at least a local independence. Such a
situation was full of danger. To surrender their privileges was
to place their religion at the mercy of a jealous, perhaps of a
bigoted, master. To keep theln was to exist as a state within
a state, and to flaunt the banners of a group of urban republics
in the face of the growing polmlarity of a lnonarchy which had
undertaken the task of founding the unit}, of France upon the
ruins of a self-seeking aristocracy.
Whatever lllay have been the right solution of the problem,
the French (;overnment, before Richelieu's accession to power,
E,coch- made no attelnpt to discover it. The Peace of Mont-
mentSFrenchOftheGo, pellier, by which the last civil war had been brought
vernment, to a conclusion, had been violated again and again.
Alnongst other prolnises the King had engaged to pull down
Fort Louis, a fortress erected during the war to comlnand the
entrance to the port of Rochelle ; but the Rochellese knew
only too well that the walls and bastions thus solemnly devoted
to destruction in word, were being strengthened under their
eyes. Marshal Lesdiguires is reported to have said that
either the Rochellese must destroy the ILrt, or the fort would
destroy Rochelle. Richelieu, there is little doubt, would
have counselled the fulfilment of the terlns of the treaty, in
order that France might have her arms free to operate against
Spain; but he had to consult his master's mood, and would
find it hard to wring fioln Louis a consent to an act which
looked like the abandolament of all control over a French
city.
At last, whilst the more prudent alnong the Huguenots
were still counselling sublnission, two brothers, the Dukes of
Dec.6. Rohan and Soubise, both of them alike ambitious
Sobi and incompetent, resolved upon once more fighting
seizes the -
Frcnch flcet out the old quarrel in arlns. On December 6
Soubise sailed into the harbour of Elavet in Brittany, and cap-
turing six vessels of war, carried his prizes safely to Rochelle.
The seafaring population of the great city welcomed hiln as
their deliverer, and the civil war once more began.
Great was the indignation at the French Court when the

308 THE LAST DA I'S OF t3[ES Z cH. -
but there could be no doubt that, as far as position at Court
st,-o,g went, both Buckinghmn and Richelieu were the
position of stronger for the successful terlnination of the contro-
lluckingham
at court, versies which had sprung out of the marriage treaty.
Of Buckinghaln it lnight truly be said that he held the govern-
ment of England in his hands. Whatever wild scheme crossed
his brain was accepted with docility by the Prince, as if it had
been the highest effort of political and military wisdom; and,
when Charles and Buckingham were agreed, James was seldom
capable of offering any serious opposition to their impetuous
demands.
Until Parliament met, therefore, Buckingham had nothing
to fear. It is true that there had been murmurs in high places
at his tergiversation with respect to the English
ttls oppo-
nents athis Catholics, and there can be little doubt that the
feet.
greater part of the old nobility regarded him with
aversion as an upstart. Such opposition he could afford
to disregard. The Privy Council and the Government offices
were filled with his creatures, or with men who found it ex-
pedient to bear themselves as though they were his creatures.
No man except Middlesex and Bristol had ventured
January.
lqiddlesex to stand up against him. Middlesex, though upon
and Bristol. his hulnble submission he had been liberated from
the Tower, and had been excused the payment of a large part
of his fine, was hopelessly excluded from public life. Bristol
was less yielding than Middlesex. To a fresh demand that he
should acknowledge that he had been guilty of errors
Feb. .
in judgment during his embassy at Madrid, he replied
by a re-statement of his own view of the matter, aqcompanied
by a letter which, though humble enough, did not contain any
cknowledgment that he had been in the wrong. 1 An ac-

 ' Hoping that your nobleness and equity will be such as a true and
clear answer will be more acceptable to your Grace than an unjust
acknoxvledgment, I have entreated Sir Kenelm Digby to deliver unto
your Grace lay answers unto the propositions which he brought unto me
from you, and humbly beseech your Grace to cast your eyes over them,
and it there sb.all be anything wherein your Grace shall rest unsatisfied, I
entreat your Grace to give me leave to attend you, where I shall endeavour

3x2 TIlE I.AST DA I'S OF TA.IfES I. ci-I. L.
sonal!y, or to live at home in that ignominy and shame as ' his
Grace ' would never endure to do.' 
Williams's advice was good, but it was hardly likely to
commend itself to a man who fancied himself equally capable
of commanding a fleet and of governing a state. Williams had
only succeeded in injuring hilnself.
Hmnilton was but one of the many men of note who had
fallen victims to that sickly winter. In the Low Countries,
Deaths of Southampton, the patron of Shakspere in early life,
m,,ot,ot, succumbed to the fatigue of his duties as colonel of
one of the regiments which had gone out in the summer to
maintain the cause of Dutch independence. At home Caron,
for thirty )'ears the representative of the States in England;
Chichester, the soldier statesman, who had ruled Ireland so
wisely; and Nottingham, the Admiral whose flag had floated
over the fleet which drove the Armada to its destruction, sunk
one after another into the grave.
Rife as disease had been, no apprehension had been enter-
tained of any danger to the King's life. At the beginning of
lllness of the the year he had recovered from the severe attack of
king. gOUt from which he had suffered at the time of Vle-
aux-Clercs' visit in December, and he was again able to take
his usual interest in current affairs. = On the tst of March he
was at Theobalds, in his favourite deer-park. On the 5th he
was attacked by a tertian ague, and, although those around
him did not think that anything serious was the matter, he was
himself prepared for the worst. Hmnilton's death affected him
greatly, the more so as there were wild rumours abroad that he
had been poisoned, and that he had been converted on his death-
bed to the Roman Church, rumours which, however destitute
of truth, made some impression at the time on the popular
mind. To James the loss of Hmnilton was the loss of a per-
sonal friend. " I shall never see l.ondon more," he said, as he
gave directions for the funeral; and he gravely reproved his
 Williams to Buckingham, March 2, t625, Cal, ala, 28o. This is the
true date. tlacket, fancying the letter related to the death of Lenno
upposed it to have been written the year before.
* Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 26, . 1'. Dora. clxxxiv. 47.

t625 CHARACTER OF 7A ,lIES.

in constitution, he was taken away from a world which he had
and charac- almost ceased even to attempt to guide. The last years
ter of his life had not been happy ; nor was the promise
of the future brighter. He had raised ex I ectations which
it would be impossible to satisfy, and it was certain that any
credit which might accrue to him would be attributed by
the popular voice to others than himself. It is but just to
ascribe to him a desire to act rightly, to see justice done to all,
to direct his subjects in the ways of peace and concord, and
to prevent religion from being used as a cloak for polemical
bitterness and hatred. But he had too little tact, and too
unbounded confidence in his own not inconsiderable powers,
to make a successful ruler, whilst his constitutional incapacity
for taking trouble in thought or action gave him up as an easy
prey to the passing feelings of the hour, or to the persuasion of
others who were less enlightened or less disinterested than
himself. His own ideas were usually shrewd; and it is some-
thing to say of him that if they had been realised both Eng-
land and Europe would have been in far better condition than
they were. The Pacification of Ireland and the effort which
he made to effect a more perfect union with Scotland were the
acts which did him most credit. If in late years his atempts
at putting an end to the war in Germany had covered him ith
ridicule, and if his efforts to forll'l a great Continental alhance
as the basis of war seemed likely to end in failure, it was not
kecause his views were either unwise or unjust, but because
either the obstacles in his way were too great, or he was himself
deficient in the vigour and resolution which alone would have
enabled him to overcome them. Keenness of insight into the
fluctuating conditions of success, and firmness of will to contend
against difficulties in his path, were not amongst the qualities
of James.
The irony of flattery svhich in his lifetime had named h.m
the British Solomon, was continued after his death. Williams,
to whom the best points of the late King appeared
H is funeral.
so admirable, in contrast with the rash, headstrong
violence of his successor, proclaimed in his funeral sermon the
comparison between James and the wisest of the Hebrew kings.

37

CHAPTER LL

MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC PROJECTS OF THE NEW REIGN,

"rilE news that Charles had taken his father's place was receivecl
with general satisfaction. "The joy of the people," as a con-
March 7. temporary expressed it, "devoured their mourning." 
General Of the character of the new King, silent and reserved
.at i.fa,:tion
with the as he was, little was known, and still less had reached
new reign.
the public ear of his questionable proceedings in the
negotiation of the marriage treaty. It was enough that, ever
since his return from Madrid, he had been the consistent
advocate of war with Spain.
When Ville-aux-Clercs went back to France with the mar-
riage treaty, Richelieu asked him what he thought of Charles.
vine-ax- " He is either an extraordinary man," was the shrewd
Ctrc" reply, "or his talents are very mean. If his reticence
ooinion of
Char|e. is affected in order not to give jealousy to his father,
it is a sign of consummate prudence. If it is natural and un-
assumed, the contrary inference may be drawn." 9.
The extreme reserve of the young King was doubtless
closely connected with that want of imaginative power which
mreti- lay at the root of his faults. With all his confi-
cec, dence in his own thoughts, he failed to give to his
ideas an expression which was satisfactory to others or even to
himself. He did not like to be contradicted, and his father's
rapid utterance had swept away his slow conceptions as with
a torrent before he could find out what he. really meant to say.
' Tilman to D'Ewes, April 8, Ellis, ser. 2, iii. 243.
 Al,:mires de lricne, i. 399-

3z:z PIgOECTS OF THE NEIV REIGn: CVI. LI
he was Prince of Wales, and had served him faithfully in that
capacity. It was, however, well known that, having fallen sick at
Madrid, he had declared himself to be a Roman Catholic, at least
till his recovery, and that he had since protested, like Bristol,
his belief that, with the aid of the Spanish ministers, the restora-
tion of the Palatinate need not be despaired of. He was now
not only stripped of his official position and elnolulnents, but
forbidden to appear at Court. Cottington, like a man of the
world as he was, went straight to the Duke, asking him ' whether
it could not be in his power, by all dutiful application and all
possible service, to be restored to the good opinion his Grace had
once vouchsafed to lmve of him, and to be admitted to serve
him ?' Buckinghana had at least the merit of speaking out his
thoughts. He told Cottington 'that he would deal very clearly
with him ; that it was utterly ilnpossible to bring that to pass
which he had proposed ; that he was not only firlnly resolved
never to trust hiln, or to have to do with hiln, but that he was
and would be always his declared enemy ; and that he would
do always whatsoever should be in his power to ruin and de-
stroy him, and of this he might be most assured.'
Cottington, seeing that all chance of advancement was at an
end, replied that ' he hoped, from Iris justice and generosity,
that he would not suffer himself to gain by his loss,' adding that
he had not only by the Duke's command laid out money in
jewels and pictures, but had once, ' in hope of his future favour,'
made hiln a present of a suit of hangings worth 800/. Bucking-
ham told him that he should be at no loss. If he would send
in his account, every penny should be repaid. 
Such an anecdote as this points to the special danger of the
new reign so far as it was to be influenced by Buckingham.
There would be no personal lneanness ; but whether anyone
was to be treated as a friend or as an enemy would depend
entirely on the accordance of his political views with those pre-
valent for the time at Court. There would be no largeness of
mind, no readiness to hear all sides of disputed questions.
Charles's heart was set upon greater things than on the

Clarendon, i. 33.

332 PROECTS OF TIlE NEIV REIG:V. CH. LI.
Jam.s. He had yielded much, and had nothing to show for it
in return.
Is it wholly impossible that Buckingham's vexation at his
political failure may have ,ented itself in the extravagance of
which he was guilty a few days later ? Though Louis went no
farther than Compigne, his mother and his wife accompanied
the young Queen of England some stages farther. At Amiens
Buckingham spoke bitterly to Mary de Medicis. The Hugue-
mts, he said, might come to Paris to ask for peace upon their
knees, but they must bring their rapiers in their hands.' On the
B,,tnghm other hand, he addressed Queen Anne in terms of
,d th such passionate devotion, as they were walking to-
Queen of
Fne. gether in the shades of evening, that she was forced to
call her attendants to her help. That the handso,ne Englishman
had made an ilnpression upon the poor young wife, who had
been treated with complete neglect by her husband, there can be
no doubt whatever; and Buckingham, especially il his present
telnper, was not the man to restrain himself froln taking ad-
vantage of her weakness. After his departure, he ,net
June 7-
a courier at Abbeville bringing him instructions to
impart certain inforlnation to the French Government. Hurry-
ing back to Alniens, he informed Mary de Medicis of the
State secret confided to him, and then asked for an audience of
the young Queen. Being introduced, as was the fashion of those
days, into the chamber in which Anne was in bed with her atten-
dant ladies around her, he threw himself on his knees, and kiss-
ing the coverlet over her, poured forth a torrent of impassioned
words such as would have beseemed a lover restored after long
separation to the sight of his plighted mistress. Vanity and
licentiousness were deeply rooted in Buckingham's nature.
Yet were vanity and licentiousness sufficient to account for
conduct so strange? May there not have mingled with un-
chastened desire some feeling of pleasure in paying his addresses
thus publicly to the wife of the man who had thwarted his
policy ? 
' I.angerac's despatch, June
ZT*
 The scene is described substantially in the same way in the Memoirs
Madame de Motteville, and in the Memoirs of Brierme. There is no

334 PROECTS OF THE NEIV REIGN. cH. LI.
Petty difficulties soon arose. Henrietta Maria had grown up
Difcuty under the care of Madame de St. Georges, and she
-bou, la- begged not to be separated from her as she drove
dame de St.
Georges. with her husband from Dover to Canterbury. She
was told that the lady's rank was not high enough to give her a
claim to a place so near the Queen. While, therefore, Madame
de St. Georges was excluded, Buckingham's lnother and sister, to-
gether with the Countess of Arundel, were allowed to seat them-
selves in the royal carriage. The first matrimonial conflict, rising
at times ahnost to the dignity of a diplomatic dispute, sprang out
of this question of precedence. The French ladies of the Queen's
suite took good care to keep the quarrel open, and to teach
her to regard everything English with contemptuous dislike. 
On the 6th the King and Queen entered London by the
highway of the river. Though the rain was falling fast, they
June x6. kept the windows of their barge open, so as to be
F;ntry of the seen by the nultitude which awaited them. They
King and
t,eeninto were received with the utmost enthusiasm. The
London.
tops of the houses, the decks of vessels and lighters,
were covered with a shouting crowd. Deeply laden wherries
gave life to the surface of the river. The ordnance of the fleet
at Blackwall, and after that the Tower g.as, discharged a
thundering welcome. The Queen, as she landed at Denmark
House--the Somerset House of an earlier and a later genera-
tion--seemed to be well pleased with her reception. The
London crowd knew no ill of her, and those who gathered to
see her as she passed had it not in their hearts to be uncivil to
one so young and fair. It was rumoured too that there were
hopes of her conversion. Perhaps she had herself unwittingly
given rise to the report. Some one had impertinently asked
her whether she could abide a Huguenot. " Why not ?" she
quickly replied ; "was not my father one ?" 
Charles might well look merrily around him as he led his
w"fe to his home. But for those terrible religious and political
questions behind, he had no need to be alarmed at the little
t Chevreuse and Ville-aux Clercs to Louis XIII., undated, HarL
4597, foL x81.
"  to , June  7, Court and Tiaues, i. 30.

342 P,,IRLIA.IIENT AT II'ESTIUIA'STE, R. CH.
,vhat course we shall take in all business this Parliament.' To
hese motions Rudyerd rose. After a studied panegyric on the
King, he adjured the House not to be led away into inquiries
which might lead to contention so early in the reign. Sir
Edvard Coke professed himself content that there should be
no committee for grievances, on the understanding that an
answer should be given to those which had been presented the
year before ; and Coke's suggestion was ultimately adopted.
A new turn to the debate was given by Sir Francis Sey-
mour. 1 Their duty to God, he said, must not be
Petition on
the Recu- forgotten. Let them ask the King to put in execu-
sancy Laws
proposed by tion the laws against priests and Jesuits. After an
eymour. animated discussion, in which member after membe
expressed himself in accordance with Seymour's . proposal, the
question was referred to a committee of the whole House.
The most remarkable feature of this debate was the com-
plete silence of the Privy Councillors in the House. It was
Silence of only at its close that Heath, the Solicitor-General,
the Privy promised that an answer should be given to the
Councillors. grievances of 6z4. On the general policy of the
Govermnent, it would seem, no man was commissioned to say a
word.
The next day the House went into committee on rehgion
and supply, ' xs-herein religion was to have the first place.' The
key-note of the debate was struck by Eliot. "Religion it is,"
e . he said, "that keeps the subjects in obedience, as
Eliot's being taught by God to honour his vicegerents. A
speech on
,cligion. rdigando it is called, as the common obligation
among men : the tie of all friendship and society ; the bond of
all office and relation; writing eve,3" duty in the conscience,
which is the strictest of all laws. Both the excellency and
necessity hereof the heathens knew, that knew not true reli-
gion; and therefore in their politics they had it always for a
maxim. A shame it were for us to be less intelligent than they!
And if we truly know it, we cannot but be affectionate in this
case. Two things are considerable therein--the purity and the
 Mr. Forter ascribes this to Pym ; but Eliot does not give his name,
and the Journals and the azosl._'v Debates agree on Seymour.

1525 A S.IIALL SUPPL Y PROPOSED. 3-15

If Charles expected that, when once the petition on religion
had been cleared out of the way, the Commons would lay at his
feet the vast treasures which he needed, but the amount of which
he had not ventured to specify, he was soon bitterly undeceived.
Scarcely had the petition left the House when Sir Francis Sey-
mour rose and proposed the grant of one subsidy and one fif:
teemh, or about oo,oooL Seldom has a motion more simple
Importance in appearance been more momentous in its conse-
ofthemotion, quences. The vote proposed was as nearly as possible
one tenth of the sum which CharIes required to fulfil his era-
gagements. It therefore implied, under the most courteous
form possible, a distinct resolution of the House to give no
adequate support to the war in which the King was engaged.
Seymour gave no reasons for his abrupt intervention. As
far as he was personally concerned, it is not difficult to find an
Cons;stency explanation of his conduct. He had been one of
S,ymou. the most eager in the last Parliament to engage
England in a war with Spain, one ot the most decided in pro-
testing against any attempt to involve Parliament in extensive
military operations on the Continent.  He was therefore only
consistent wtth himself in refusing the supply necessary to
carry out a policy of which he disapproved.
The Court party was taken by surprise. Many of its mem-
bers were absent from the House ; all of them had been left
without instructions how such an emergency was to
The Court
tytken be met. Rudyerd alone, facile speaker as he was,
by surprise.
was prepared to say something, and he dwelt at some
length upon the ,ecent expenses of the Crown, the sums ot
money which would be required for the payment of debts in-
curred in burying King James, for the entertaiument of foreign
ambassadors, for the approaching coronation, and for tie war.
The navy was to be got ready ; the lutch, the King of Den.-
mark, Mansfcld, to be assisted. But whatever Rudycrd might
say, he had not been empowered to ask for an)" definite sum

 On March 19, 624, he had said that he had heard ' wars spoken on
and an army ; but wou'd be glad to hear whtre. The Palatinate was the
place intended by his Majesty. This we never thought of, nor is it fit fur
the consideration of the Itouse, in regard of the infinite charge.'

him the attempt to convert Parllamentary elections into a sham
Eliat's re- WaS utterly abhorrent. In them he saw the voice of
o,oof, the nation speaking its mind clearly, as he saw in the
representatives of the nation once chosen the embodiment of
the majesty of England. Out of the fulness of his heart he
reproved the man who held both the House and its constituents
in contempt.
The rnajority sided with Eliot. Glanville, whose authority
was great on all questions of this nature, produced precedents
july 5. to show that a poll when demanded must be anted,
"the ection whether it was after eleven or before, and that electors
declared
void. had a right to vote even if they had not heard the
writ read. Wentworth's election was declared void, and the
doors of the constitution were opened more widely than they
had been before.*
Few as were the members remaining at Westminster during
the last days of the session, they had still matters of unusual
x22. importance to discuss. Some three years before,
Montagueat Richard Montague, the rector of Stanford Rivers,
Stanford
Rivx. in Essex, found in the hands of some of his parish-
loners a paper drawn up by a Roman Catholic missionary,
containing the usual arguments against those Calvinistic tenets
which, at the close of the preceding century, had been the
accepted doctrines of the great majority of the clergy, and
attacking the popular theology as if it was the accepted doc-
trine of the English Church. Montague, who belonged to a
different school, and who found support for his opinions in
those formularies of his Church which reflected the belief of an
earlier generation, determined to frame a reply which should
l:ase its repudiation of the Roman doctrine upon grounds very
different from those which were popular amongst the clergy
and laity. He was not unversed in controversy, having already
entered the lists against Selden himself, whose llistory of 2"tltes
he had unsparingly condemned.
The result of Montague's meditations was that 2"e Gag
for the new Gospel--such was the quaint name of the paper

t Forster, Sir e. Eliot, i. 53 ; Fawsley Debates, 3, 36, 44-

JS-" PAI?LIAbII'NT AT bVESTIIlIATSTEI?. CH.-LII:
'hich had aroused his indignation--received a reply under the
,62. equally quaint name of 4 .,'Vezo Gag for an Old
, ;,,,a,.# Goose. It is unnecessary to say that it was deformed
for an Old
;oo,e. with that scurrility from which few controversies in
that age were free. But, as far as the matter of the volume is
concerned, an impartial judgment will probably consider it as
a temperate exposition of the reasons which were leading an
increasing body of scholars to reject the doctrines of Rome and
of Geneva alike. To the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination
Montague intertained an insuperable objection. He refused
to speak of the Roman Church as indubitably Antichrist, or of
the Pope as the man of sin.! Those who remained under the
Pope's authority formed a part of the Church of Christ, corrupt
nndunsound in the highest degree, but not utterly apostate.
Of the more peculiar doctrines sanctioned by Papal authority
he spoke in a way very different fi'om that in which the majority
of Protestant Englishmen were accustomed to express them-
selves. He denied the right of the clergy to enforce upon the
people the practice of compulsory auricular confession ; * but
he held that in cases where the mind was perplexed or the
conscience burthened with sin, the person so troubled might
be invited, or even exhorted, to come voluntarily to the Christian
minister, and to seek for advice and consolation, and for the
declaration of divine pardon to the repentant offender. He
denied that the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper under-
went any substantial change ; but he asserted that Christ was
therein present to the faithful receiver in some mysterious way
which he did not venture to define.  Pictures and images, he
t The passage about the Roman Church is a quotation from Cassander:
' Et .quamvis pr.'esens hc ecclesia Romana non parum in morum et
disciplin sinceritate, ab antiqufi ill unde orta et derivata est, discesserit,
tamen eodem fundamento doctrin.-e, adde etiam in doctrin:e sinceritate et-
sacratnentorum a deo institutorum firma semper constitit, et communionem.
cum antiqu illfi et indubitat$ Christi Ecclesi agnoscit et colit. Quare
alia et diversa ab illfi non potest, tametsi multis in rebus dissimilis sit.
Manet enina Christi Ecclesia et sponsa, quamvis multis erroribus et vitiis
slSonsum suum irritaverit, quamdiu a Christo suo sponso non repudietur,
tametsi multis flagellis ab eo castigetur." 2Very Ga, 53.
 Ibid. 8 3.  Ibid, 258.

354

tAlx'LIAiI[ENT AT PVI?ST.IIIA'STER. cH. L.

Abbot took the hint. "Mr. Montague," he said, "you
profess you hate Popery, and no way incline to Arlninianism.
You see what disturbance is grown in the Church
lie remon-
.trates with and the Parliament House by the hook by you lately
llontague, put forth. Be occasion of no scandal or offence;
and therefore this is lny advice unto you. Go home, review
over your book. It may be divers things have slipped you,
which, upon better advice, you will reform. If anything be
said too lnuch, take it away ; if anything be too little, add unto
it ; if anything be obscure, explain it ; but do not wed yourself
to your own opinion, and reluember we must give an account
of our ministry unto Christ."
Such advice, which might perhaps have been of some avail
with a young lnan whose opinions were as yet unformed, was
of course thrown away upon a practised writer who was simply
asked to cast the whole treasure of his intellect in a new mould.
Montague too went to the King, and found in James a sym-
pathising auditor. " If that is to be a Papist," said James, "so
am I a Papist." By the King's permission he prepared a second
.a.eo book, entitled Apello Cesarem, in which he vindi-
c,,e,,, cared more fiercely than before his clailn to be the true
exponent of the doctrine of the Church ; and this book, having
been referred by James to Dr. White, Dean of Carlisle, was by
him declared to contain nothing but what was agreeable to the
public faith, doctrine, and discipline of the Church of England.
and was accordingly licensed for the press. Before it was ready
for publication, James died, and it was issued with a dedication
to his successor.
Montague's opinions were not likely to be popular. On
July , as soon as the question of supply had been settled, the
Commons sent a deputation to Abbot, to know what
x65.
July x. steps he had taken. The deputation found him much
The Cora-
o pply vexed. After telling them all that had happened, he
to aot. complained that he had not even been informed of
the intended publication of the second book till it was actually
in the press. As, however, he had no legal jurisdiction over
Montague on the mere complaint of the House of Commons
all that he could say was that he would gladly give his judg-

I625 STt?EVGTt OF CA1. I'INIS.1L 355
Inent upon th 12ello Ccesarem whenever he should be ' orderly
directed to it.
The attempt of the Commons to obtain the unofficial
"the ,ooUs support of the Archbishop having thus fairly broken
r,,rer,edtoa down, they referred the whole subject to the com-
cornmittee, mittee by which the Petition on Recusancy had
been prepared.
That the report of the committee would be adverse to 3Ion-
tague was clearly to be foreseen. His opinions had made but
little way amongst the lawyers and country gentlemen--the two
most conservative classes in the nation--of whom the House
was mainly composed. Nor indeed was it to be expected that
English the prevailing Calvinism would surrender its ground
Calvinism. without a struggle. It had done great things for
Europe. At a time when the individual tendencies of Pro-
testantism threatened to run riot, it had given to men a con-
sistent creed and an unbending moral discipline, which was
yet Protestant to the core, as being built upon the idea of
the DMne choice resting upon the individual soul, with-
out the intervention of any priest or ecclesiastical society.
Wherever the struggle with Rome was the deadliest, it was un-
der the banner of Calvinism that the battle had been waged.
Wherever in quiet villages, or in the lanes of great cities, any-
one woke up to the consciousness that a harder battle with sin
was to be waged in his heart, it was in the strength of the Cal-
vinistic creed that he had equipped himself for the contest.
Alone with his God, the repentant struggling sinner entered
the valley of the shadow of death. Alone with his God he
stepped forth triumphantly to hold out a hand to those who had
passed through the like experience with himself.
The strength of the English Calvinists lay mainly in the
humble peaceable men who found in their creed a safeguard
.to,, of against a life of sin. Such a one was the father of
13ax,er. Richard Baxter. Around his Shropshire home, in the
last ten years of James's reign, there was but little preaching at
all. In one village there were ' four readers succcssively in six
years' tme,' ignorant men, and two of them immoral in their
lives '. In another ' there was a reader of about eighty years of

t6 5 THE. ANTI-CALVLVIST REACTIOA,: 357
would look to their religion rather as an intellectual frame-
work to the quiet morality of their lives than as a
Reaction
against struggle or an effort. In England it came when men
:galviuism. like Laud and Montague set themselves free from
the bonds of Calvinistic dogmatism. They claimed to think for
themselves in cases in which no decision had been pronounced,
and to search for goodness and truth on every side. They
were offended not merely by this or that doctrine of Calvinism,
bnt with its presuml)tion in repelling half the Christian Church
of the present, and almost all the Christian Church of the past,
from participation in the Divine favour. They were offended
with its dogmatism, with its pretensions to classify and arrange
men's notions of mysteries which eye hath not seen nor ear
heard, and they claimed the right to say that there were things
on which the popular religion had pronounced clearly, which
were nevertheless beyond the domain of human knowledge.
Even if, like the Arminians of the Netherlands, the rebellion
against Calvinistic dogmatism had taken a merely doctrinal
form, the supporters of that rebellion would have had
lot a
ou- but little chance of taking hold of the popular nfind.
,,,om,,t. The objections which they felt were only likely to
occur to men of culture and education. It was alike their weak-
ness and their strength that the movement was emphatically a
learned naovement--a movement originating with those who had
outgrown the leading strings which were still necessary to guide
the steps of others, and who could look without shrinking at
the fact that religion was a subject upon which human reason
could, to a very limited extent, exercise its powers. They were
intellectually the Liberal Churchmen of the age. They stood
between two infallibilities--the infallibility of Calvinism and
the infallibility of Rome--not indeed casting off entirely the
authority of the past, but, at least in a considerable sphere of
thought, asking for evidence and argument at each step which
they took, and daring to remain in uncertainty when reason was
not satisfied, t
t There is a passage in the conference held in the following year on
Montague's books, which seems to me to embody the spirit of the move-
met t more than any other which I have seen. The question asked was

PIVLII2W.EIVT I T IV.ESTMIA'ST.EV. CH. LII.

Evidently such a standing-point was not likely to be re-
cetved with popular applause; and the difficulty before
these men was considerably increased by the fact
Necessity of
system to the that they did not content themselves with merely
rty. doctrinal differences. It is a necessity of human
nature that for every plunge which it makes forward into the
untried sea of free thought, it must attach itself all the more
closely in some other direction to the finn ground of orderly
systematic belief. Luther, as he struck boldly out from the
Church institutions of his day, saved his creation from falling
into chaos by clinging with ahnost convulsive grasp to the in-
stitutions of the State. Calvin, in fixing his eyes upon the
individual salvation of the man predestined to glory, took care
to surround the future saint with the strictest discipline and
with the iron bonds of a theology which was for him to be ever
unquestioned. Ill our day those who trust most to their own_
powers of reason are the loudest in proclaiming the forces of
universal law, and in expounding the necessity of acknowledg-
ing a fixed order in the universe.
For lnen like Montague and Laud the order of Rome and
the order of Calvinism were alike impossible. Never again
Posit-ion would they bend their necks under either yoke.
taken by it. It was by looking back to the earlier days of the
English Reformation, when Calvinisln was but stealing in, that
they found what they needed. The theology of Cranmer, fix-
ing itself upon the principle that all practices were to be main-
tained, all doctrines held, which could not be proved false by
the authority of Scripture and the custom of the early Church,
suited them exactly. It gave them a rational ground on which
to stand. It gave employment to minds to which the history,
especially the ecclesiastical history, of the past was an attractive

whether General Councils could err. To this Buckeridge and Cosin re-
plied : "All assemblies of men in sensu divino, and confederated merely as
men, may err in the weightiest matters of faith : but all assemblies of mer
havhg suffcicnt ability of learning to judge, and who with prayer and pious
affection endeavour to understand heavenly truth by the rule of God's
Word, all such asmmblies of men shall not err, because God hath promised
the assistance of His Heavenly Spirit to deliver them from fundamental
e::or." Cosin's Works, ii. 24.

1625 .IIONT.d G UE .d CC USED.

time. The author was not to be allowed to escape so easily.
It might be doubted whether the House was acting within its
powers in dealing with theological belief. Its right to interfere
in matters of State could not be doubted. Montague was ac-
cordingly accused of dishonouring the late king, of disturbing
Church and State, and of treating the rights and privileges of
Parliament with contempt.
Of these three charges the first was absolutely ludicrous.
To accuse a man of treating James with disrespect by publishing
lont,g,e a book of which the late King had expressed his ap-
-cc,sed of probation, simply because certain opinions were con-
differing
with King troverted in it which James had advocated in early
life, was not only absurd in itself, but would have led
to conclusions which the Commons would have been the first to
repudiate. For if a man was to be prosecuted for disagreeing
with James on a point of theology, why might he not much
more be prosecuted for disagreeing with Charles ?
The real weight of the accusation, however, fell upon the
second head. The unity of religion which Eliot had so
Of sowing ent.husiastically praised had its advantages. States-
dissension, men as well as theologians might look with appre-
hension on the day when Protestantisln was to embark upon
the raging waves of internal controversy, and when, as it might
be feared, the Jesuits would be enabled to sing triumphant
songs of victor), whilst their antagonists were fleshing their
swords in mutual slaughter. Even if such was not to be the
case, the entrance of religious strife would open a sad and
drear), perspective of bitterness and wrangling, of seared con-
sciences, and of polemical ability rearing itself aloft in the
place which should have been occupied by moral suasion: for it
must be acknowledged that, if Montague was far less scurrilous
than Milton was a few ),ears later, his tone was by no means
calm. He had used expressions which might occasionally
give offence. Above all, he had spoken of his ,qdversaries as
Puritans, a term which is now generally applied to the whole
CaMnist-ic party, but was then looked upon as a disgraceful
epithet, only applicable to those who refused conformity to the
.Prayer Book.

o_$ B UCICLVGtt..,tlII'S I.,VTENTIOI'S. 369

ported it, of greater weight and moment, shewing a conversion
of the tide. For the present it gave that gentleman some wonder
and astonishment : who, with the seal of privacy closed up those
passages in silence, yet thereon grounded his observations for the
fiture, that no respect of persons lnade him desert his country."
What did Buckingham mean when he proposed to press for
additional supply, 'lnerely to be denied'? That he wished,
from pure gaiety of heart, to engage in a struggle
What did
Buckingham o,f prerogative against the country itself is an idea
n,e,n? which needs only to be mentioned to be dismissed,
especially as there is another interpretation of his words which
exactly fits the circumstances of the case. 1 If Buckingham
really thought, as there is every reason to suppose that he
thought, that he had been scandalously ill-treated by the
Conamons,--that they had, without raising any open charge
against him, deserted hiln in the midst of a war which
he had undertaken on their invitation, he may well have
believed himself justified in putting the question once more
directly to them, with the distinct prevision that if they refused
to help him he would stand better with the nation than if he
allowed the war to languish for want of speaking a necessary
word. Somehow or other the imnaediate crisis might be tided
over, and the military operations on the Continent postponed.
Somehow or another the equipment of the fleet might be com-
pleted. A great naval success, the capture of the Mexico fleet,
or the destruction of some Spanish arsenal, would work wonders.
Whatever blot attached to him through past failures--and
Buckingham's failures were always, in his own eyes, the result
of accident, his successes the result of forethought--would be
wiped away. A second Parliament would gather round Charles
of another temper than his first had been. The King who had
done great things could ask, without fear of rebuff, for further
means to accomplish things greater still.
If this was Buckingham's intention--and his subsequent

 It does not follow that he would not have been glad to strengthen
the Crown at the expense of the House of Commons, either by increasing
its popularity, or by giving it a military force if he had seen his way to do
either. ee p. x95, note x.
VOL. V. B B

6 5 /tW ESTI.]I,. TE PRODUCED. 371

the official view that he was to obey orders, not to criticise
them, and he was therefore ready to carry out any policy which
approved itself to Buckingham and the King.
As soon as it was known to ]3uckingham's friends in the
House that Eliot's mission had failed, Coke rose. For the
hasty grant of two subsidies lnade before any minister
Further
supply asked of state had been heard on behalf of the King, he found
for.
a convenient excuse in the eagerness of the House to
satisfy his Majesty. He now explained the way in which the
subsidies granted in the last Parliament had been expended,
said what he could in defence of Mansfeld's failures, and stated
that the fleet in preparation would cost e93,ooc/. , or 33,o/.
more than the subsidies already voted. Besides this e4o, oool.
a year would be needed for Mansfeld, and the same sum for
the King of Denmark. Even this, though the needs of the
lteet and of the King of Denmark were understated, and the
expenditure required for the troops in the Netherlands was
passed over in silence, was enough to frighten the House ; and
Coke went on to throw away whatever chance remained to
him of persuading the members, by adding that this expen-
diture 'could not be supported without more help by Pallia-
ment, or else some new way.' After this last phrase, which
was sure to grate upon the ears of his hearers, he lnade an
appeal to the magnanimity of the House. "The King," he
said, "when he was Prince, borrowed eo,oool, for these provi-
sions. The Lord Adlniral hath engaged his estate. Other
ministers have furnished above 5,I. Shall it be said tha_t
these men are left to be undone for their readiness to the public
services ? Shall we proclaim our own poverty by losing all
that is bestowed upon this enterprise, because we cannot go
through with it ? What shall we say to the honour of the King ?
But that is not all. Even the establishment of his Majesty ha
his royal throne, the peace of Christendom, the state of religion,
depend upon the fleet."
The Crown Coke's estimates, underrated as they were, were
a, issuewith larger than the House cared to face. Even now no
the Com-
mo,s, attempt was made to convince the Commons that it
was wise to enter so extensively upon a Continental war. It

16-" 5 TIIE HOUSES AD'OUR:VED. 373
hope that the prisoner would be set at liberty, in which case,
he said, he would be ready to give theln satisfaction. Mon-
tague's committal, Heath said, was not for his opinions, but for
his contempt of the House. He then gave an account of all
that had taken place. Charles 'smiled, without any further
reply.'l The House, on tile other hand, when it heard what
had passed, determined to maintain its position. The recent
july g. nomination of Montague to a chaplainship looked
The Com- very like a Court intrigue to screen his conduct
mons main-
rain their from investigation, and the doctrine that the King's
position.
servants were responsible to the King alone was not
likely to find favour amongst the Commons.
On July t the Houses were informed that their labours
were to come to an end that day, but that they were to meet
july, again shortly to hear more trom the King. The
'eHous Commons then proceeded to the Upper House to
adjourn to
Oxford. hear tile Royal assent given to the few Bills which
had been passed. The word "shortly " was the.n explained to
them by the Lord Keeper. Tt,ere was to be an adjourmucnt,
Execution of not a prorogation. They were to meet again at
,he recu- Oxford on August I. They would then receive a
sancy laws
promised, particuIar answer to their petition on religion, and in
the meantime his Majesty, ' by present execution of the laws,
would make a real rather than a verbal answer to their content-
ment and the contentment of all the kingdom.'
The Lord Keeper had been an unwilling instrument in pro-
nouncing the King's resolution for the adjournment to Oxford.
"rhe st, Williams, with his usual good sense, saw that there
taken op- was little prospect of success in an attempt to drive
poed by
Williams. the Cbmmons to vote supplies to which they enter-
tained an apparently insurmountable objection. The day before
the adjournment he had advised that the Houses
Jub, to. should meet, not in August, but at Christmas. As
Wilhams did not hope nmch from the fleet which was prepar-
ing for sea, it was natural for him to make the proposal. To
Buckingham it looked very like treachery. " Public necessity,"

t trawsley D,'3ates, 62. " Z3M. 67.

374

PARLIA.)IEA'T A T II'ESTIIA'STER. cH. L.

he said, "must sway more than one man's jealous),."  Charles
sided with his favourite, and the prescient Lord Keeper was
reduced to silence. The Houses dispersed, hardly thanking
Charles in their hearts for the modified promise which had been
given them, and full of discontent at the prospect of meeting
again, to be asked once more for those subsidies which they
vere so reluctant to grant.

 ttacket, ii. i 4.

380 PEA"ATNGTON'S FLEET. CH. Lilt.

he found that every Frenchman whom he met told him that his
ships were wanted for an attack upon Rochelle. In the midst
of these distracting uncertainties he resolved firmly that he
would not allow the command of the squadron to slip out of
his hands. When, therefore, he was requested by the French
authorities to take three hundred soldiers on board the ' Van-
guard' and two hundred on board each of the smaller vessels,
he flatly refused compliance. His orders, he said,
Refuses to
admit authorised hiln only to take the French Admiral on
French
soldiers on board his own vessel, 'with such convenient train as'
board, he was able to accommodate, and not to admit into
the lnerchant ships more than 'half of the numbers of each
ship's company.' 
Possibly these orders had been given by Buckingham to
enable him to retain a hold upon the vessels. The French, how-
The French ever, refused to accept them on such terms. They
try to get the had by this time learned enough of the temper of the
ships into
their power. English sailors to discover that, except under com-
pulsion, they would never fight against their fellow-Protestants.
Officers and seamen alike, including Pennington himself, had
spoken out their minds on this. The French ministers finding
that they could not have their way, wrote to their ambassadors,
who were still in England, to urge Buckingham to alter his
instructions. 
With Pennington there was nothing to be done. Mont-
Juuee. morency, the Admiral of France, came in person to
Montmo- Dieppe to use his influence. Pennington told him
rency at
Dieppe. that, though he was ready to obey orders from
his own Government, he would not go an inch beyond them.
Juuex He soon conveniently discovered that it was im-
The fleet possible to remain much longer in an open road-
returns to
ngnd. stead exposed to the violence of the winds. At
midnight on June 7, the whole fleet weighed anchor and took

 Pennington to Pembroke, June 5, S. _P./)ont. iii. 7- Pennington
to Coke, June IS, ,4ldbourne illS&
June ux S. t . aWrance. D'Ocquerre to
 D'Ocquerre to Pennington, July x'
Ville-aux-Clercs, June _o tfarl. A1SS. 4597, fol. 98.

6z 5

THE FLEET RETURNS TO DIEPPE. 387

of his ship, and if they proceeded so far as to offer to take the
^,tlnyto possession of her, that then his men should take
ee got-p it him prisoner and bring away the ship : and that the
,.es,-y. said Captain Pennington might believe him that he
had thus much to deliver, it being the King's will and the rest, 
that it was far from them that any of his ships should go against
any of the Protestants." *
If Pennington had before been anxious to surrender his
command, what must have been his feelings when he received
instructions in this underhand manner to get up a mutiny on
board the King's ship entrusted to his charge ?
Pennington, when Pembroke's message reached him, was
once more at Dieppe with the 'Vanguard,' having crossed the
july. Channel in spite of the murmurs of his men. A
Pennington day or two later he was followed by the merchaot-
aualn at
l lieppe, men, as soon as their captains came on board, s When
the ' Vanguard' arrived, Nicholas was already in the town with
Effiat. Pennington who, although he had not been informed
of the real nature of Nicholas's mission, was ready to fall back
upon any excuse which would cause delay, discovered that he had
not sufficient warrant to deliver up the ships. He even refused
at first to come on shore to confer with Effiat, and said that
he could do nothing till he had fresh authority from England.
Nicholas then took up his cue. He wrote to Pennington re-
july e. monstrating with him, and arranged with Effiat to
send to England for peremptory orders to the cap
tains to surrender the ships. Much, to his disappointment, Effiat

 Of Buckingham, Conway, &c., I suppose.
* Message sent from Pembroke by Edward Ingham, S..19. l)om. iii.
2o, undated, and calendared June  (?) but the date is approximately fixed
by the mention of that ship alone, as coming soon after Penuington's
letter of July S. The following letter from Pembroke to Pennington
iS. .P. Dora., .-l,hlemta), written on the zoth, gives it to that day : " I must
give you many thanks for your respect to me in so freely acquainting me
ith all particulars that have happened this voyage. x'ou shall receive
directions by this bearer from his llajesty and nay Lord Admiral how to
carry yourself in this business, which I know you will punctually obey.
From me you can expect nothing but assurances of my love," &c.
s Pennington to Nicholas, July ",, S. P. Dorn. iv. 97.

388 PEA'A'IA'GTO_A,"S FLEET. CH LIII
would not allow him to go on board. 1 At last Pennington
consented to land and to confer with Effiat, and in spite of the
jealousy of the Frenchman, who did his best to prevent any
communication between him and Nicholas, Nicholas contrived
to whisper a few words of warning to him, bidding him take
heed that he had sufficient warrant for delivering up the ships.
He had but a letter from Conway, and, in such a case, the
King's signature to a warrant might fairly be demanded. 
Nicholas's next step was to address a letter to the officers
and crew of the 'Vanguard.' Would they or would they not
Appeal to either deliver up the ship, or receive three hundred
Ih crew. Frenchmen on board ? 3 The answer was contained
in a note from Pennington. "I pray," he wrote, "let me entreat
july23, you to come aboard, for nay people are in a mighty
!,t!,y b- mutiny, and swear they will carry me home perforce.
gmmng.
I know your words will do much amongst them, and
I have a great desire to give satisfaction to nay Lrd Ambassa-
dor, so far as I may with safety of nay life."  Upon this appeal
Nicholas was permitted to go on board. Alike in the ' Van-
guard' and the merchant ships he met with opposition. The
crew f the 'Vanguard' would take on board i5 unarmed
Frenchmen, would carry them to England, ' and there leave the
ship to them, so as they may have a good discharge.' The
captains of the merchantmen objected to the security agreed
Dauble upon at Rochester, and said that they could not deliver
V,g.agof the ships till this point had been better arranged. 
N cholas.
Nicholas, in fact, had made use of this visit to do his
nmster's bidding, n To Pennington he repeated the warnings
Nicholas to Buckingham, July 22, S. . 1)otrt. iv. 97, oo, o4, o 5.
 Account by Nicholas of his employment, 6z6 (?l, .5". /. 13ore. xxvii.
III.
 Nicholas to Pennington and the Ship's Company, July 22, S. _P. oiit.
iv.
 Pennington to Nicholas, July 23, S. /. 13on. iv. ! Io.
n Answers to Nicholas, July 23, S. . Zkom. iv. Io2 ; 5". 2o. Fratttt.
 When Buckingham was accused the next year of giving up the ships,
Nicholas, who seems to have been quite proud of his part in the transac-
tion, wanted to tell the whole truth. On the 6th of May, 626, he wrote
to Pennington (S. t'. Dam. A,td,'nda)--" The Vanquard and the six

625 WICHOLAS'S LVTRIGUE. 389
which he had addressed to him on shore. With the captains
he held two languages. Whenever Frenchmen were present, he
charged them to give up the ships at once. Whenever he could
merchant skips are come to Stoke Bay, but you are to satisfy the Parlia-
ment by whose and what warrant you delivered them up to the French.
The masters of the merchants' ships have some of them said that it was
by my Lord's command, and by reason og threatening speeches which I
used to them by order from my Lord, but this will be, I doubt, disproved
hy many witnesses, and by some of them when they shall speak on their
oaths. It is true that, before the Ambassador or his people, I did often
charge them aloud to deliver them over according to my Lord Conway's
letter and the King's pleasure ; but I fell from that langnage when we were
private with the masters ; aud you may remember how often I told you I
had no warrant or order from my Lord for delivery over of those ships, and
though I did not wish you to go over into England, yet I think y,m mav
well remember I told you, you had not warrant, nor could I give you anv
to deliver them, and that my Lord was absolutely atainst the delivery of
them. But I pray keep it to yourself until you shall he called on oath and
have leave from the King to declare that I told you I came oer rather to
hinder than further the delivery or loan of those ships."
In the statement already quoted, Nicholas writes, after giving the sub-
stance of his instructions :--
" Accordingly when the Vanguard came into the road of Dieppe, and
that Captain Pennington sent for me to come aboard, I acquainted the
Ambassador with it, and told him if I went to the Captain, I made nc
doubt but to persuade him to come ashore with me, notwithstanding he
was--as the Ambassador had complained to me--so obstinate that he re-
fused to come out of his ship to the Duke de Montmorency, who importuned
him there by many kind invitations and noble messages ; but the Ambas-
sador would not permit me to go aboard, but commanded me to write tc
Captain Pennington to come ashore, which I did as pressing as the
Ambassador desired, which took effect. When he was come, he Ambas-
..ador interposed still between us, so as I could not have a word in private
with him, but was forced to let fall a word now and then as I purposely
walked by him, to bid him look well whether he had sufficient warrant to
deliver the ships: hich I did lest the Ambassador, by importunity or
artifice, showing a letter under his Majesty's hand to the French King,
which was nmch more effectual than the warrant from my Lord Conway,
should draw a promise or engagement from the Captain to deliver he ships
before I should have opportunity privately to advertise him to beware
and on what warrant he did surrender the fortresses of the kingdom into
the hands of a fireign prince ; for if the Ambassador should have found
him more averse than before, it would have given his Lordship just occasion

i625 CHARLES'S PROSPECTS. 395

little disposition to inquire too narrowly into the original
engagement by which the ships had been offered to the King of
France.
As far, therefore, as their foreign policy was concerned,
Charles and his minister had some ground for the expecta-
tion that their proposals would meet with more favourable
consideration than they had met with at West-
July 30.
The English minster. But what was to be done about the Eng-
Catholics. lish Catholics ? The engagements which Charles had
severally taken to the King of France and to his own Parliament
were so flagrantly in contradiction with one another, that no
double-tongued Nicholas could by any possibility help him out
of this difficulty. The advice given by Williams was, that, seeing
that promises had been made to Louis, Charles should announce
to the Commons that the execution and relaxation of the penal
laws was entirely a matter for himself to judge of.  It is just
possible that if Charles, with a really effective French alliance
to fall back on, had been able to inform the Houses at the
same time that peace had been made in France with the
Huguenots, and that there would be no longer any persecution
of the Protestants there, he might have stood his ground, even
with the House of Commons. On the other hand, if he put the
laws in execution to please the Commons he would give deadly
offence to Louis, and would probably render all active French
co-operation impossible.
By this time the members of the House of Commons were
unwillingly preparing to make their way to Oxford. The temper
in which they were did not bode much success to the
Aug. .
Reassembly experiment which Charles was about to try. Even
a Oxfo,d. the difficulty of obtaining lodgings in a strange place
was raised to the dignity of a practical grievance. History was
ransacked for instances of unlucky Parliaments which had met
at Oxford, whilst no one seems to have thought of the glories
of that great assembly which gave birth to the Provisions of
Oxford. Worse than all, the plague was already breaking out

 taracket, ii. I7. See also the brief of depositions against Williams,
June 6 637, s..P. Dora. ccclxi.

oo PARL1A1IENT A T OXFORD CH. LIV.
Unhappily Charles was not likely to take his stand upon so broad
an issue; perhaps the time was not yet come when it was possible
for any man to take so high a ground. At Hampton Court he
had claimed to save Montague from the Commons
Heath de-
c,res,io,- by declaring him to be his chaplain, and Heath now
tague to be
the V:in's warned the House against touching a man in his
ch--plai,. Majesty's service. The challenge was not allowed to
pass unquestioned. "All justices of the peace, all deputy-
lieutenants," said Alford, "are the King's servants." No man
could by any possibility commit a public offence but by colour
of public employment and service to the King. If all these
were to be freed from Parliamentary inquiry, what would be the
condition of future Parliaments ?
In spite of the tendency of some speakers to go off upon
the merits of Arminianism and the doctrine of the fallibility of
Claimsofthe grace, the leading members had sufficient influence
Coo,. to keep the point raised by Alford in the foreground.
Coke, who was allowed to speak a second time, exprbssly dis-
claimed any right in the House to meddle with points of dgc-
trine. They had only to deal with Montague for his contempt
of the House. They would inform the Lords of his evil
doctrine, and, as the Bishops had seats in the Upper House,
such questions might be resolved there. At the last the sen-
tence would coane before the King, who might execute or remit
it as he thought fit. There were, however, precedents of cases
in which Parliament had petitioned the King not to use his
prerogative of mercy. Phelips closed the debate by reminding
the House that in the last Parliament James had already put
forth the claim ' that no servant of his should be questioned.'
In the end, the serjeant was ordered to bring Montague to the
bar. It was, however, discovered that Montague was really too
ill to attend, and the order in consequence remained unexecuted.
The question of the responsibility of the King's officers,
when once stirred, was ce.'tain to recur sooner or later. Coke
Question of might strive hard to bring the desire of the House
.poni- to punish Montague within the formulas of the past;
bility, but in itself the question of responsibility was the
question of sovereignty. If all official persons were liable to
the censure of Parliament whether the King liked it c.r net,

1625 "" 21t'IfVISTERIAL RESPO.,'VSIBILITF.

Charles might still have functions to perform which would be
eminently useful to the Commonwealth ; but he would not be
a sovereign in the sense in which Henry VIII. and Elizabeth
had been sovereigns. The inapeachnaent of Middlesex and the
threatened impeachment of Montague were the signs of a great
change in the relations between the King and the House of
Commons. The question was raised because the House had
ceased to have confidence in the King; but the innovation
was none the less striking on that account.
As far as the great religious dispute by which men's minds
were agitated was concerned, it mattered little whether Mon-
vie, t-,ke,, tague was the King's chaplain or not. On the very day
of Monta-
gue'sbookby on which the Commons were pronouncing strongly
the l-fisbops against his opinions, the three Bishops by whom
friendly to
hi. those opinions were regarded with the greatest favour,
were writing to Buckingham in their defence. "The Church of
England," said Buckeridge, Howson, and Laud, "when it was
reformed from the superstitious opinions broached or main-
tained by the Church of Rome, refused the apparent and
dangerous errors, and would not be too busy with every par-
ticular school-point. The cause why she held this moderation
was because she could not be able to preserve any unity among
Christians if men were forced to subscribe to curious particu!ars
disputed in schools." Some of the opinions for which Montague
was attacked were ' yet only for schools, and to be left at more
liberty for learned men to abound in their own sense, so they
keep themselves peaceable and distract not the Church ; and,
therefore, to make any man subscribe to school opinions may
justly seem hard on the Church of Christ, and was one great
fault of the Council of Trent.'
Evidently the Bishops were more liberal than the House of
Commons. Beyond the region of dogmatic teaching they saw
a region of mystery into which the eye of reason
Liberal
view of the could hardly pierce, and which might well be re-
tlishops, served for reverent investigation by learned and devout
men, whilst it was utterly unsuited lot the wolent declamation
of the popular rhetorician. Unhappily it is by slow steps that
the world rises to the height of a great argument, Something
VOL. V. D D

THE (.2)UESTIOV OF TOLEI?.,4 TIO.'t: 4c 3

Such was the ground thus early taken up by Laud, and
maintained by him through the whole of his career. It was a
claim hard to be met if it were once admitted that
The King
a con,.o- the clergy were a body separate from the rest of the
cation, nation, and able to bind the nation to the perpetual ob-
servance of any compact to which it had once assented. If, how-
ever, this be uot the case--and the whole spirit of English history
is opposed to such a view--then l.aud was in the wrong. What
was temporary in the settlement of Henry VIII. was the position
taken by the King as the head of the clergy. What was per-
nanent was that in so doing Henry VIII. represented the state
and nation. Just so long as Charles represented the state and
nation would Charles and the Bishops be able to lay down the
law as to what was to be taught and what was not. Already the
Commons were beginning feebly and incoherently to put in
their claim to be the representatives of England ; though they
had yet to learn that the voice of numbers will not suffice to
give permanent supremacy. The questio:a of religious differ-
ences was coming to the front. Whoever could most wisely solve
it, whether King or Commons, would lead the English nation
in the ages which were coming.
Immense as was the ultimate importance of these religious
disputes, they did not form the immediate question of the hour.
Nevertheless, the feelings roused by the discussions of the first
two days were not favourable to Charles's design of drawing fresh
Aug. . subsidies from the Commons. The third day, kept
The fast. as a fast on account of the plague, was certain to
bring with it thoughts and feelings which boded no good to
the King who issued pardons to Jesuits and shielded Arminians
from punishment.
On August 4 Charles came in from Woodstock, where he
was staying, and summoned the Houses to appear before
-ang. 4. him in Christchurch Hall. He had indeed need of all
The King in the eloquence he could command. His exchequer
Christchurch
q--. was even at a lower ebb than it had been when he
opened Parliament in June. It was only with the greatest
difficulty that the necessary provisions for the Royal household

4o4 PARLIAAIENT A T O.YFORD. OH. LtV.
had been procured. * Now too, as in June, Charles had to
l)alance the advantages of making a clean breast to Parliament,
and telling all his plans and all his needs, or of contenting
himself with asking only for as much as would be required for
the equipment of the fleet, which, as it was to be directed
against Spain, was more likely to stir the popular feeling than
any combination in Germany.
As usual he did not say much. He again reminded the
Houses of their engagement to support him in the war, and
begged them to think of the reputation of the king-
His speech, dora, even at the risk of danger to their own persons
from the plague. His preparations had cost him large sums of
money, and it would be better that half the ships should perish
at sea than that they should remain at home. In two days, he
ended by saying, they should have an answer to their petition
on religion.
Charles had dwelt entirely on the fleet. Conway, who
followed, took a wider view of the situation. Having said that
Conway's 3o,oooL or 4o, ooo/. were wanted to enable the fleet to
ddr. start, he afterwards drew a picture in the background
of the Continent in flames, and hinted at the large sums needed
for keping the Protestant forces on foot in Germany and the
Netherlands.
There was thus a discrepancy between the smallness of the
sum named and the largeness of the expenditure hinted at.
To fulfil his engagements, Charles wanted not 4o, oooL but
some 7,ooo, oooL or 8,ooo,ooo/. at the least. To make up
his mind to forego this and to be content with the smaller sum
would probably have been his wisest course, and if he had adopted
it he might perhaps have avoided summoning Parliament at all.
"i'hs, however, was precisely what he was unable to bring his
mind to. He, therefore, it may be supposed, whilst authorising
Conway to mention the fact that no more than 3o,oooL or
4o,oooL was needed for the fleet, allowed his greater expenses
to be expounded in the hope of stirring the liberality of the
Commons to the utmost. 
 Conway to'Ley, July 24, S. t . Dom.,'.4d.tenda.
 Conway's speech seems to be" very fully given in the trawsley Debates,

loz 5 SE I'IlOUR'S .4 TT.4CA: 407

the action proposed. If they could not get satisfaction there,
let them go to the King.
Full and complete information upon the intentions of the
Government was plainly the only condition upon which the
Objections Commons could be justified in acceding to the dc-
raised toit. mands made upon them. It was one of the evils
of the new system of government that there was no one in the
House of sufficient authority to take upon himself the respon-
sibility of meeting an unexpected proposal. It was probably
from instinct rather than from any knowledge of the King's
wishes that Sir George More replied, with courtier-like fmility,
that it was unconstitutional to apply to the I,ords on a questim
of subsidy. May, Weston, and Heath sat silent in their places,
and before they had time to receive instructions the debate had
taken another turn.
If there was a man in the House who would be consistent with
himself in attacking the foreign policy of the Crown that man was
Seymour Sir Francis Seymour, the proposer of the restricted
attacks th, supply which had been granted at Westminster. In
foreign
policy of the itself the fact that the Government had entered into
engagements with foreign powers so extensive that it
did not venture directly to ask the Commons for the meaus of
fulfilling them was calculated to give rise to the gravest sus-
picions, and Seymour, the old opponent of the system of Con-
tinental wars, was not likely to treat such suspicions lightly.
This meeting of Parliament, he argued, had been the work of
those who sought to put dissensions between the King and his
people. It was absurd to suppose that it needed a Parliament
to procure 4o, ooo/. for the fleet. As for the rest that had bccn
said, he had no confidence in the advisers of the Crown. tit:
did not believe that peace had been lnade in France, and he
hoped that English ships would not he used as abettors of the
French king's violence against his Huguenot subjects. Then
turning to the past, Seymour continued, "We have given three
subsidies and three fifteenths to the Queen of Bohemia, for
which she is nothing the better. Nothing hath been done.
We know not our enemy. We have set upon and consumed
our own people," What he wished was that they might now

members to the Council Board, The greatest difficulty was con-
ceived to rest in religion and the fleet. For the first, the jealous)'
being derived from his protection given to-Montague ; for the
Latter, that it had so unnec.essary preparation and expense ; and
yet in both there might be a reconciliation for himself. Sending
the fleet to sea and giving others the command, was propounded
as a remedy for the one ; having these reasons to support it, that
the design could not be known, nor, if there wanted one, that
judged by the success, and the success was answerable but by
those that had the action. For the other, it was said that the
leaving of Montague to his punishment, and the withdrawing
that protection, would be a satisfaction for the present, with
some public declaration in the point, and a fair parting of that
meeting. That the danger of the time  was a great cause of
dislike ; that the dislike had ushered in most of those questions
that had been raised. Therefore to free them from that danger
would dissolve the present difficulties, and facilitate the way to
a future temper for agreement. The fleet must needs go forth
to colour the preparation, and the return might yield something
to justify the work, at least in excuse and apology for himself,
by translation of the fault. ''2
If this account of the language used to Buckingham has
not been distorted in its passage through the medium of other
How they men's minds, it must have been beyond measure
-,,,outao,na annoying to him. To have it hinted that the fleet
to Bucking
- which had been for so many months the object of
his solicitude was never intended to sail, was not a suggestion
to which he was likely to listen with equanimity. The wonder
is not that the proposal of referring everything to the Council was
ultimately rejected by him, but that he should, even for a moment,
have given any hope to his advisers. He was called not merely
to admit himself to be incapable of directing the state, by con-
'senting to place himself under the control of a Council reinforced
by men who looked upon him with distrust, but to renounce all
those long-considered plans which he regarded as of such im-
portance. Already war had broken out in Germany, and the
King of Denmark, depending on English promises, was holding
 Le. fron, the plague.  Eliot, zV,,, losterorun.

4'2- PARLIA JfEA'T  T O.''FORD. cH. LIV.

that if the fleet were successful it would do more good to the
common cause than if ioo, oool. a month were paid to the allies
of England on the Continent. By so doing he fell back on the
policy of carrying on the war at sea alone, which had been ap-
proved by the Commons in 1624, without frankly abandoning
his own more far-reaching schemes.
The explanation doubtless is that, whilst Buckingham could
not abandon the world of alliances and subsidies in which he
had been living and moving during the past year without speak-
ing a word in their favour, his sanguine mind seized upon the
chance that the success of the fleet might make all these sub-
sidies unnecessary. After all, why should he not pay Mansfeld
and Christian with gold from the mines of Spanish America
rather than from the purses of English citizens and landowners ?
Such a solution would rid him of his difficulty. It would satisfy
the King's allies and satisfy the House of Commons as well.
Buckingham's explanation, taken at its best, is fatal to his
claims to statesmanship. Either he had promised too much
The Corn- before, or he was asking too little now. Was it
,,ons,ot likely that it would allay the suspicions which were
likely to be
satisfied. SO rife amongst the Commons ?
If Buckingham did not succeed in gaining the good-will of
the House of Commons his position would be indeed deplor-
French pro- able. By his cynical disregard of Charles's plighted
tests, word he was alienating a powerful sovereign and
an influential Church. As soon as his declaration against the
Catholics was known, the Bishop of Mende, who was the
Queen's almoner, and Father Berulle pleaded the cause of
their co-religionigts. The Duke gave them no hope that the
promises made at the time of the raarriage treat), would be
fulfilled ; but he made light of Charles's breach of faith. The
Catholics, he said, would be moderately dealt with. Their
troubles, which would only last for a time, were necessary to give
satisfaction to the people. Berulle replied that, as he was
about to return to France, he would acquaint his own sove-
reign with all that he had seen and heard. Buckingham begged
him not to put a worse colour on the proceedings in England
than they would bear, and repeated his plea of necessity. Only

o PARLL4JIFA'T .,4 T OA'FO.RD. CH. LlV.
House should be allowed to sit any longer. Once more Wil-
Di.olutto, lialns pleaded hard against the fatal error of opening
,e_o,,d o,. a new reign with a quarrel with the House of Com-
mons. For once Buckingham was on the same side. Throw-
ing himself on his knees he entreated the King to allow the
Parliament to continue ; but Charles was immovable, and the
dissolution was irrevocably determined on.
Buckingham's petition was naturally described by his oppo-
nents as a mere piece of acting.  It may have been so, but it
was not in his nature to shrink from opposition. His temper
ah-ays led him to meet his detractors face to face, certain of
the justice of his own cause and of his own ability to defend it.
In truth it was Charles's authority as nmch as Buckingham's
which was at stake. The course which the Commons were
taking led surely, if indirectly, to the responsibility of ministers
to Parliament; and the responsibility of ministers to l:'arlia-
ment meant just as surely the transference of sovereignty from
the Crown to the Parliament.
The next morning, before the fatal hour arrived, an attempt
was made by Heath to answer Mansell. The Council of War,
he said, had often been consulted. Chichester, who
Heath
evlie to was dead, had left papers to show how far he agreed
tan. with the plans proposed. Carew was absent from
Oxford; Harvey had only recently joined the Council; but
Lords Grandison and Brooke, the Sir Oliver St. John and Sir
Fulk Greville of earlier days, would come, if they were invited,
to tell the House what they knew. As for Mansell, he had a
scheme of his own to which no one else would listen, and had
consequently refused to attend the Council.
Though this account of what had taken place was very likely
true. Heath had not met Mansell's assertion that he had been
i:,,.e' told that he was not to speak on the scheme itself,
a,,,,'e, but only on its execution. Manse!l, who rose in
self-defence, did not deny that there had been personal ill-
will between himself and Buckingham, but he said that when
he laid his own proposal before the Council, he was told that

Eliot's 2Vegoliunt.

432 P.4RLI2fIIENT .4 T O.YFORD. cvI. LIV.
One last effort was made by Sir Edward Villiers to induce
the House to reconsider its determination. "We are under the
The last rod," answered Wentworth, "and we cannot with
cn. credit or safety yield. Since we sat here, the subjects
have lost a subsidy at sea." 
The protestation was hurried through the necessary forms.
Whilst Black Rod was knocking at the door, some one moved
that there should be a declaration ' for the acquitting of those
who were likely to be questioned for that which they had spoken.'
If anyone was likely to be questioned it was Phelips. But
Phelips would hear nothing of it. "There hath been little
effect of such declarations," he said. "The last Parliament but
one  some went to the Tower, some were banished to Ireland,
notwithstandin just acquittals. For nay part, if I am ques-
tioned, I desire no other certificate but the testimony of my
conscience, in confidence whereof I will appeal from King
Charles misinformed to King Charles rightly informed."
At last the doors were opened. The Commons were sum-
Dissolution. moned to the Upper House, and in a few minutes
the first Parlimnent of Charles I. had ceased to exist.
Such was the end of this memorable Parliamenta Parlia-
ment which opened the floodgates of that long contention with
the Crown which was never, except for one brief moment, to be
closed again till the Revolution of 1688 came to change the con-
ditions of government in England. As far as the history of
such an assembly can be smnmed up in the name of any single
man, the history of the Parliament of 1625 is summed up in
the name of Phelips. At the opening of the session his hasty
advocacy of an immediate adjourmnent met with little response.
Leadership The House, however, under the pressure of events
of Vhips. came gradually round to his side, and at Oxford he
virtually assumed that unacknowledged leadership which was all
that the traditions of Parliament at that time permitted. It was
Phelips who placed the true issue of want of. confidence before
1 The exposure of English colmnerce to pirates was always a reproach
to which ,'entwolth was extremely sensitive.
 The words " but one " are wanting in the report. Fawsley Z)ebatc,