CHAPTER LII. PEACE WITH FRANCE.- PEACE WITH SPAIN. - STATE OF THE COURT AND LII. THERE now opens to us a new scene. Charles, naturally CHAP. disgusted with Parliaments, who, he found, were determined to proceed against him with unmitigated rigour, 1629. both in invading his prerogative, and refusing him all supply, resolved not to call any more, till he should see greater indications of a compliant disposition in the nation. Having lost his great favourite, Buckingham, he became his own minister, and never afterwards reposed in any one such unlimited confidence. As he chiefly follows his own genius and disposition, his measures are henceforth less rash and hasty; though the general tenor of his administration still wants somewhat of being entirely legal, and perhaps more of being entirely prudent. We shall endeavour to exhibit a just idea of the events which followed for some years; so far as they regard foreign affairs, the state of the court, and the government of the nation. The incidents are neither numerous nor illustrious; but the knowledge of them is necessary for understanding the subsequent transactions which are so memorable. Charles, destitute of all supply, was necessarily reduced to embrace a measure which ought to have been the result of reason and sound policy: he made peace with the two crowns against which he had hitherto waged a war, entered into without necessity, and conducted without glory. Notwithstanding the distracted and helpless condition of England, no attempt was made, either by France or Spain, to invade their enemy; nor did they entertain any farther project, than to defend themselves against the feeble and ill-concerted expeditions of that kingdom. Pleased that the jealousies and quarrels between the king and Parliament had disarmed so formidable a power, they 38 VOL. IV. LII. 1629. CHAP. carefully avoided any enterprise which might rouse either the terror or anger of the English, and dispose them to domestic union and submission. The endeavours to regain the good-will of the nation were carried so far by the King of Spain, that he generously released and sent home all the English prisoners taken in the expedition against Cadiz. The example was imitated by France, after the retreat of the English from the isle of Rhé. When princes were in such dispositions, and had so few pretensions on each other, it could not be difficult to conPeace with clude a peace. The treaty was first signed with France". and Spain. The situation of the king's affairs did not entitle him to 14th April. demand any conditions for the Hugonots, and they were France 1630. 5th Nov. abandoned to the will of their sovereign. Peace was afterwards concluded with Spain; where no conditions were made in favour of the palatine, except that Spain promised in general to use their good offices for his restoration. The influence of these two wars on domestic affairs, and on the dispositions of king and people, was of the utmost consequence: but no alteration was made by them on the foreign interests of the kingdom. Nothing more happy can be imagined than the situation in which England then stood with regard to foreign affairs. Europe was divided between the rival families of Bourbon and Austria, whose opposite interests, and still more their mutual jealousies, secured the tranquillity of this island: their forces were so nearly counterpoised, that no apprehensions were entertained of any event which could suddenly disturb the balance of power between them. The Spanish monarch, deemed the most powerful, lay at greatest distance; and the English, by that means, possessed the advantage of being engaged by political motives in a more intimate union and confederacy with the neighbouring potentate. The dispersed situation of the Spanish dominions rendered the naval power of England formidable to them, and kept that empire in continual dependence. France, more vigorous and more compact, was every day rising in policy and discipline; and reached at last an equality of power with the house of Austria: but her progress, slow and gradual, left it still in the power of England, by a timely inter a Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 23, 24. b Idem, ibid. p. 75. Whitlocke, p. 14. LII. 1630. position, to check her superiority. And thus Charles, CHAP. could he have avoided all dissensions with his own subjects, was in a situation to make himself be courted and respected by every power in Europe; and what has scarcely ever since been attained by the princes of this island, he could either be active with dignity or neutral with security. A neutrality was embraced by the king; and during the rest of his reign he seems to have little regarded foreign affairs, except so far as he was engaged by honour, and by friendship for his sister and the palatine, to endeavour the procuring of some relief for that unhappy family. He joined his good offices to those of France, and mediated a peace between the Kings of Sweden and Poland, in hopes of engaging the former to embrace the protection of the oppressed Protestants in the empire. This was the famed Gustavus, whose heroic genius, seconded by the wisest policy, made him in a little time the most distinguished monarch of the age, and rendered his country, formerly unknown and neglected, of great weight in the balance of Europe. To encourage and assist him in his projected invasion of Germany, Charles agreed to furnish him with six thousand men; but that he might preserve the appearance of neutrality, he made use of the Marquis of Hamilton's name. That nobleman entered into an engagement with Gustavus; and enlisting these troops in England and Scotland at Charles's expense, he landed them in the Elbe. The decisive battle. of Leipsic was fought soon after; where the conduct of Tilly and the valour of the imperialists were overcome by the superior conduct of Gustavus, and the superior valour of the Swedes. What remained of this hero's life was one continued series of victory, for which he was less beholden to fortune than to those personal endowments which he derived from nature and from industry. That rapid progress of conquest, which we so much admire in ancient history, was here renewed in modern annals; and without that cause to which in former ages it had ever been owing. Military nations were not now engaged against an undisciplined and unwarlike people; nor heroes set in opposition to cowards. The veteran c Rushworth, vol. i. p. 46. 53. 62. 83. LII. 1630. CHAP. troops of Ferdinand, conducted by the most celebrated generals of the age, were foiled in every encounter, and all Germany was overrun in an instant by the victorious Swede. But by this extraordinary and unexpected success of his ally, Charles failed of the purpose for which he framed the alliance. Gustavus, elated by prosperity, began to form more extensive plans of ambition; and in freeing Germany from the yoke of Ferdinand, he intended to reduce it to subjection under his own. refused to restore the palatine to his principality, except on conditions which would have kept him in total dependence. And thus the negotiation was protracted till the battle of Lutzen, where the Swedish monarch perished in the midst of a complete victory which he obtained over his enemies. State of the court try. He We have carried on these transactions a few years beyond the present period, that we might not be obliged to return to them; nor be henceforth interrupted in our account of Charles's court and kingdoms. When we consider Charles as presiding in his court, and minis- as associating with his family, it is difficult to imagine a character at once more respectable and more amiable. A kind husband, an indulgent father, a gentle master, a steadfast friend, to all these eulogies his conduct in private life fully entitled him. As a monarch, too, in the exterior qualities, he excelled: in the essential, he was not defective. His address and manner, though perhaps inclining a little towards stateliness and formality, in the main corresponded to his high rank, and gave grace to that reserve and gravity which were natural to him. The moderation and equity which shone forth in his temper seemed to secure him against rash and dangerous enterprises: the good sense which he displayed in his discourse and conversation seemed to warrant his success in every reasonable undertaking. Other endowments likewise he had attained, which, in a private gentleman, would have been highly ornamental, and which, in a great monarch, might have proved extremely useful to his people. He was possessed of an excellent taste in all the fine arts, and the love of painting was, in some degree, his favourite passion. Learned beyond what is d Franklyn, vol. i. p. 415. LII. 1630. common in princes, he was a good judge of writing in CHAP. others, and enjoyed, himself, no mean talent in composition. In any other age or nation, this monarch had been secure of a prosperous and a happy reign. But the high idea of his own authority which he had imbibed, made him incapable of giving way to the spirit of liberty, which began to prevail among his subjects. His politics were not supported by such vigour and foresight as might enable him to subdue their pretensions, and maintain his prerogative at the high pitch to which it had been raised by his predecessors; and, above all, the spirit of enthusiasm being universally diffused, disappointed all the views of human prudence, and disturbed the operation of every motive which usually influences society. But the misfortunes arising from these causes were yet remote. Charles now enjoyed himself in the full exercise of his authority, in a social intercourse with his friends and courtiers, and in a moderate use of those pleasures which he most affected. of the After the death of Buckingham, who had somewhat Character alienated Charles from the queen, she is to be considered queen. as his chief friend and favourite. That rustic contempt of the fair sex which James affected, and which, banishing them from his court, made it resemble more a fair or an exchange than the seat of a great prince, was very wide of the disposition of this monarch. But though full of complaisance to the whole sex, Charles reserved all his passion for his consort, to whom he attached himself with unshaken fidelity and confidence. By her sense and spirit, as well as by her beauty, she justified the fondness of her husband; though it is allowed that, being somewhat of a passionate temper, she precipitated him into hasty and imprudent measures. Her religion, likewise, to which she was much addicted, must be regarded as a great misfortune, since it augmented the jealousy which prevailed against the court, and engaged her to procure for the Catholics some indulgences which were generally distasteful to the nation®. In the former situation of the English government, when the sovereign was in a great measure independent of his subjects, the king chose his ministers either from e May, p. 21. |